I have a bizillion (yes that's a number) pony beads from all the retelling activities I've made. What do you do with them? This is an old idea I re-invented today to keep the kids busy and interested in addition. We made counting sticks to use when doing addition. They had no problem making them and I put all the supplies on a paper plate.
However, do not ever try to give a five year old boy pink beads because it horrifies him and he can't bear to use them. The best part was watching them put these on the pipe cleaner and keep track of 10. Once these were made we practiced simple addition problems by sliding the beads to the right (just like you read) and counting the total. They really loved when I made up stories with their names. Cute huh... ? I store them all in a cup in the front of the room and plan to use them as part of my morning opening. I call them "counting sticks."
