Sticky Number Lolly Sticks

This super simple activity not only keeps toddlers and children busy but also learning at home. This activity is also great for when you are out and about. We actually did this when we went for a meal. My two were kept busy and entertained for quite some time whilst we waited for our food to arrive.

Set Up

I wrote the numbers 1 - 6 and 10 - 15 on lolly sticks . I also wrote the numbers 1 and 2 for F so she could join in. M is already great at number recognition of the numbers 1 -6 but thought it would be an easy way to build her confidence as she would be able to do those ones independently. I knew she would need help recognising the higher numbers. I bought the lolly sticks from Poundland but think the wider lolly sticks, like these, would be much better especially for the higher numbers. As the one I used were a bit small for the stickers. I used these stickers which were a big hit. F was able to peel them off by herself.

They both got stuck straight in. So their task was to stick the correct numbers of stickers on each stick. They happily worked by themselves; peeling, sticking and counting. It was a great fine motor activity as well and I was impressed at how F tried really hard to stick the stickers accurately onto the stick. This wasn’t that easy for her but she got there. M busily worked away and only struggled once she got to the higher numbers. At that point I helped her. We looked at the numbers on the sticks to see if we could work together to work out the numbers. Once she knew which was which, she was happy sticking the correct number of stickers on by herself.

They enjoyed this activity a surprising amount. They both learnt something through it and our meal out was that bit more enjoyable as they had something to keep them busy. This is an easy maths activity that we will do again at home but using bigger lolly sticks instead!