1, 2, 3! Hop, hop hop! This leaping frog activity is a super simple and fun way to practice counting with little ones. Learning through play is a wonderful way to practice numbers and counting, as well as developing a child’s confidence and independence. This activity is straightforward to make, and offers a few variations of counting practice to keep little ones engaged! First, let’s put everything together with some arts and crafts, then we’ll get into how to play!
Materials
- Green pom poms, a few different sizes
- Googly eyes
- Green pipe cleaner
- Green marker
- Green and blue construction paper
- Something circular to trace – we used 2” and 1” lids
- Glue stick
- White glue
Steps
For the Lily Pads
Use something circular to trace as many lily pads as you would like to make onto a green sheet of construction paper. The more lily pads you make, the higher you can count during the game! We used a 2” lid to make ten lily pads. Draw a wedge onto each circle and cut them out.
With a green marker, write the numbers 1 through 10 on one side of the lily pads, one number on each lily pad.
If you’d like to decorate your frog pond, you can make some flowers to add to your lily pads! We made our flowers by tracing a 1” lid, then marked and cut into the circle to make eight equal petals. We added a small yellow circle to the middle as well.
Frog
To make the frog’s legs, bend a green pipe cleaner in half. Make a little tail at the bend that will support the body, and then bend both sides of the pipe cleaner to make legs with a bend in the knee. Bend the rest of the pipe cleaner to make webbed feet.
Glue a large green pom pom to a smaller pom pom to make the body and tail, and glue it to the pipe cleaner. Glue two googly eyes onto two small pom poms and attach them to the top of the body. Glue on a little mouth cut out from red construction paper.
Now your frog is ready to play in the lily pad pond!
Ways To Play
1. Place the lily pads number side up onto a blue piece of construction paper to make a pond. Make sure the lily pads are in order from 1-10. Have your little one hop the frog from lily pad to lily pad while counting. Have them try going backwards too!
2. Mix up the lily pads so the numbers are all over the pond. Hop the frog around the pond going from number to number in order. Little ones will have to count and search for the next number!
3. Select one of the lily pads and place it number side up in the pond. Hop the frog on that lily pad the correct number of times. Your little one might like to try hopping themselves while counting to the number on the lily pad!
4. Select one of the lily pads and place it number side up by the pond. Then count and place that number of lily pads into the pond, number side down. Then the frog can hop from lily pad to lily pad while counting.
We hope you have a great time practicing counting and hopping with this simple lily pad and leaping frog counting activity! There are lots of ways to practice counting through play – see if you and your little one can find new ways to count and play with this activity set! Hop, hop, hop! Happy hopping and counting!
For more ways to practice counting, visit our Counting Page.
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