I don’t know about your kids but my kids REALLY love bath time! It’s such a great way to end the day. They get clean and play all in one. Lately, Grace has been getting a little bored with her regular bath toys. You know what I’m talking about………. the rubber ducks, empty containers, bath animal friends, dolls, and kitchen play stuff. So, I decided it was time to start mixing it up. I grabbed some super cheap foam numbers while I was grocery shopping the other day and I thought I could definitely do some kind of fun activity in the bath with this.
I probably thought about it for a good while until Grace started to soak me with a plastic cookie frosting container I threw in the bath with her to keep her entertained. The plastic cookie frosting container plus the foam numbers and the number bullseye was born!
This was seriously one of the most fun activities I have done with Grace. We were laughing the entire time! It took about 5 minutes to set up and she played the game for a good 30 minutes. When she was finally done, her little hands were more wrinkly then normal. She just didn’t want to get out of the bath!
I know you’re ready to get started. So, here we go……………….
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Materials:
Directions: The first thing I did was wet one side of the numbers I was going to use for this activity. She was doing this activity for the first time so I decided to include numbers 1-9. Then I slapped them on the bath tub wall about 7 to 12 inches apart. The foam numbers will stick nicely if they are really wet. I took the bath crayons and put two circles around each number to make it look like a target. I filled the tub with water and the cookie frosting container. Grace got in the tub and I went over the directions with her. I told her she was going to play a number game. I was going to show her a number on my phone (I had number flash cards but I left them in the playroom) and she had to squirt that number with the bottle. Once the number was out of the circle she could pick it up and throw it in the water. To complete the game, she had to wash off all the numbers. When she was finished getting all the numbers down, we went over the numbers and we put them in order.
How did my daughter do with this activity?
I think I loved this activity just as much as she did! She thought it was so funny! Every time she squirted the bottle she would just laugh so had! I love these types of activities, she’s learning and we are all having a great time.
Grace is still working on number recognition, so I had number flash cards ready to go but I left them in the playroom. I saw my phone on the counter in the bathroom and quickly looked up a number. When I showed her the number and asked her what number it was, she probable knew 1 number out of the 9. So, I’ll be working on number recognition activities with her for the next few weeks.
You can find out so much information about what your child knows when you do activities with them. I know it helps me to know what skills Grace still needs help on.
What is she learning during this activity?
- Number recognition – recognize the numbers by looking at them
- Hand-eye coordination – hands and sight work together to do something
- Number sequencing – know that numbers go in order
- Language development – count out loud and say the correct name for each number
- Following directions – follow directions in order to play this game correctly
Extending this activity is so easy!
There are so many ways you can extend this fun activity!
- You can use the foam numbers to do number addition or subtraction in the bath.
- Each night you can do a different set of numbers all the way to 100 and beyond.
- You can also do this same activity to teach name recognition or the alphabet.
We will defiantly be doing this very fun number game again! I think next time we’ll do it outside. The foam numbers will also stick to the outside of a house and we can use sidewalk chalk to draw the circles around the numbers. Sidewalk chalk comes off easily with water! I can’t wait to do this and I bet you can’t wait either!
