Welcome back to our “Exploring Numbers through the the Senses Series”! This is the third post in and we are exploring numbers through taste… kind of…. Forgive me that I don’t quite know how to TASTE numbers. What I decided to do was help build a conceptual understanding of quantity (totally numbers related!), and I’m happy with how it turned out!
Supplies
- Lunch supplies cut into bite sized pieces
- Tray
- Number cards (we made ours ourselves)
Our spread was made up of cheese, olives, bread, raisins, pears, bell peppers, lunch meat, carrots, grapes, and crackers. I cut them into bite sized pieces and printed out the numbers 0-10 on printer paper. That was it! I called my hungry preschooler over for his lesson and lunch 🙂
The first number card was zero. We talked about how zero meant nothing, so we didn’t get a snack for this number. Next was one, so he chose one item to eat (example- one carrot). Next was two, so he chose two items to eat (two raisins)…and so on and so on.
Not only was this a great way to practice counting and matching quantities to numerical symbols, it was also a good way to get him to try new foods! For example, he was not super interested in eating olives (I can’t blame him, I’m not fan either), so he only chose to eat one of them.
Ways to extend the activity: Help your child strategize what they want to eat before hand. Do they love grapes? Discuss how it would be best to “save the best for last” since hey will be able to eat more of them that way!
How else could you extend this activity? I’m looking for more ways to learn about numbers through the sense of taste, leave your ideas below!
