Counting sticks. Play and learn with counting sticks

Almost every one of us remembers such an element from childhood as counting sticks. They were multi-colored plastic or wooden plates, which were painted in different colors. With such a simple invention, most of the children learned to count, to distinguish colors, to create compositions. But now we dig a bit deeper and try to figure out how the counting sticks can help the child develop abstract thinking, form basic preschool knowledge and become smarter and more inventive every day.

Everything starts with the right approach

In order for a modern child, who literally drowns in a variety of different toys, could be interested in such simple objects as multicolored thin plates, it's worth a little crocheting. So, the first thing that parents should do is assign an adjective "magic" to the wand. For a better result, they can be stored in an unusual casket (if you have a girl) or in one of the toy big cars (in the case of a boy). Do not forget to always pay attention to the fact that it is counting sticks that can be used to teach him how to count, draw, represent various figures. The classes that take place with their participation should always be interesting for the baby. Take care that he does not miss, that he really liked this process and he enthusiastically mastered new and new horizons of knowledge.

Brief instruction on use

In general, it can be said that counting multicolored sticks develop far more than one skill in a growing child. Among those can be called fine motor skills of the hands, logic, imagination, in addition, they help the kid become more focused, assiduous. Also, abstract thinking becomes richer and brighter , fantasy and creative potential develop. Use this childlike adaptation, if we learn to count to 10, we study the alphabet, we make syllables and words. Also counting sticks are suitable for modeling various figures, drawings. Of these, you can make a boat, a house, even a mom and dad. Also, children are interested in sorting sticks by their colors and sizes (if they have different sizes).

Motor in the arms in infancy

With nine months of life of the baby, you can safely take up the perfection of the motility of his hands. At this age, the tweezers begin to form a tweezers grip (he starts taking objects with his big forefinger), so the task of parents is to improve this natural and vital skill. In this case, the best assistant will be counting sticks, which have a short length and a very small thickness. In a box for sticks, cut a small hole with a knife, and then turn out all the contents in front of the baby. Let him put the sticks in the box one by one, picking them up with his fingers. When the child starts to grow up, the game can be diversified by the fact that it will now pass for a while. The kid will have to shove the maximum number of plates in the box for a certain period.

Learn Color

For the kid, games with countable chopsticks will be very entertaining, where they must be sorted by color. Starting a child to teach this can also be at the age of nine months or one year. First, select the plates of the two colors, mix them and show the kid how to unfold them. You can simply create two heaps, for example, for blue and red. It is possible to make the game more interesting - to offer the child to put blue sticks in a box of the same color, the same to do with the red ones. This exercise affects the development of the baby's sensory system. He begins to perceive new material faster and better processes it. Also during the game the child will learn to compare and make the right decision. When you see that there are successes in the work, add one more color.

Non-standard combinations

As a rule, at the age of the year, children begin to learn such material as plasticine. At first, babies mold some abstract and unclear figures from him, but if you help them a little in this creative process, the successes will be much more noticeable. It is in this work that you can profitably use counting sticks, and how to do it, we will now tell. Wand, suitable in color, can become a tree trunk or a flower stalk. From a large number of plates you can make a fence in a plasticine house. Also, sticks can be used as spines for a hedgehog, hands and feet of a person, dog or cat paws and so on. It all depends on your imagination and, of course, on your child's abstract thinking.

Draw using sticks

It happens that adults try to teach a child to draw certain things, objects or even to represent something on paper, but their efforts are futile. But it should be remembered that even if a toddler does not show special talents in the field of painting, he must simply transfer and be able to represent the simplest objects and phenomena. This fundamentally affects his abstract thinking and perception. Because now we will add different shapes from counting sticks and start with the simplest. Draw the simplest picture on paper without painting it, leaving only the outlines. Now ask the child to lay out the sticks on these lines. Pay attention to the baby that both strips should exactly match. You can complicate the task with the help of colors. Draw, for example, a brown trunk of a Christmas tree and green branches. Let the crumb pick up the plates corresponding to the color and put them on top.

Head to mathematics

Every parent knows that counting sticks are one of the best assistants in the event that we learn to count to 10 or study geometry. It's amazing, but simple plates that resemble matches, serve as the best teachers for children and perfectly develop abstract thinking and understanding of this material. How to teach a kid just to count is understandable to everyone. You just need to lay out the right amount of sticks, add to them additional or subtract. But if you study geometry, then there is much more. From the plates you can make shapes, change them, while doing this by moving only one of their sides. By the way, to explain to the kid, what is this - the party, you can in this way. Similarly, knowledge is put in about what angle, parallel sides, perpendicular and other aspects of geometry are.

We form the didactic skills of the baby

A real discovery for the younger generation are the counters of Cuisenar. They are a combination of color and number, which, according to experts, allows a child to learn the basics of mathematics and logic most quickly and effectively. In addition, they perfectly develop didactic skills, improve the motor skills of the hands and improve abstract thinking. When viewed from a mathematical position, the data sticks are a set in which order and equivalence are tracked. Thus, modeling a number with the help of this "designer", the child begins, without even noticing, to solve mathematical elementary problems. In his understanding, a representation of the number is formed on the basis of measurement.

We play with the invention of Cuisener

If you have a very tiny child (a year and a half), then the colored counters of Cuisenar will serve only as a designer. However, we still use it with a hint of mathematics, applying the following method. From the sticks, you can make a ladder. At the bottom we place the longest of them, set a little shorter above, then shorter and so on. Also, the plates can be placed in different ways. They can have the form of a pyramid as a result, and can be adjusted to one side. This will give the child an opportunity to understand what it means more and less, what it means to be "between" or "on both sides." Similarly, you can make any compositions and gradually complicate them, watching the development of your child.

Conclusion

Counting multicolored sticks is a real find for every family where a child grows. With their help, you can teach your child any basic skills, starting with the simplest - hand mechanics, ending with pre-school mathematical knowledge. You can use simple sticks during the training of crumbs, or you can buy Cusuener's counting sticks, which are considered much more effective and contribute to the better development of a small person. So come up with different games, train the child's imagination and watch how he literally is improving before your eyes and becoming smarter and smarter.