You’re a great home school teacher. You stick to the curriculum but you make things fun. Teaching young kids is exciting because, usually, they’re very eager to learn. Often, kids can learn much faster when they have a hands-on experience – like when they make their own flash cards. To add just one more fabulous teaching element to your home school do a quick craft to help your young child learn numbers and counting. A pocket numbers chart is a game and a learning tool, all in one.
It’s not hard to make a numbers chart which will help teach your child to count to 100, to count by 5’s and to count by 10’s. To start, cut two pieces of fabric to be 26″x26″. Stack the two pieces of fabric on top of each other so that their wrong sides face each other. Sew around all four sides.
Cut strips of thick, clear plastic to make the pockets for the chart. You’ll find suitable plastic for this chart at a store which sells fabric and, sometimes, at a home improvement store. Cut 10 strips of the clear plastic to each be 25″ long and 1 ¾” wide.
Lay the first strip across the bottom of the fabric and sew it in place, stitching just along the bottom of the plastic, from one end to the other. Now, position the second strip of fabric above the first one, and sew along the bottom. Continue to do this until you’ve sewn all 10 strips onto the chart, but only across their bottom edges.
Stitch down the left and the right side of the chart to connect the sides of the plastic strips to the fabric. Now, sew vertical lines, from top to bottom, and from one side to the other, to section the plastic pieces into 10 rows of 10 sections.
Cut cardstock into 100 small squares to finish the number chart. Cut the cards to be 2″x2″. Use stickers or markers to write the numbers 1 through 100 on the cards. Write all the numbers in black – or the same color of sticker – then use a different color, like red, to write certain numbers. Red numbers will include 5, 10, 15, 20, and so on, to 95. Other red numbers include 10, 20, 30, and so on, to 100.
Kids can slip the little cards into the slots to show that they can count from 1 to 100. The red numbers help them learn to count by 5’s or 10’s. The chart is actually a game which can help kids learn their numbers even faster. You can make various charts by making different cards, like the letters of the alphabet, and others. Remove all the cards, have the child put them all back in – in order – and time him or her to see how fast it can be done.