Snack on Some Sweet Raisin Numbers!

Turn snack time into math time! Here's a sweet activity for your preschooler to get both his nutrients and his numbers all at once by making raisin numbers. All you need are raisins, peanut butter, and crackers, and you've got an easy, at-home game that'll reinforce his number recognition, improve his fine motor skills, give him practice writing numbers, and satisfy his appetite.

Safety Note: Peanut butter is used for this activity. If your child has an allergy, consider using an alternative spread like cream cheese, jam or jelly, or another nut butter (provided your child has been tested for that as well).

What You Need:

• Raisins
• Small paper cup
• Plain crackers
• Peanut butter
• Plastic knives
• Paper plate
• Toothpicks
• Number cards (if needed)

What to Do:

1. Put the raisins into a small paper cup for your child.
2. Give your child 10 crackers on his paper plate.
3. Ask your child to spread peanut butter with the plastic knife onto his cracker.
4. With the toothpick, have your child draw one number between 0 and 9 on each cracker in the peanut butter. For younger children, you may have to draw the numbers for them, but older children can draw numbers by copying them from cards or from memory.
5. Have your child put raisins along the drawn lines to make the number.
6. After your child has outlined each number and put raisins on all the crackers, ask your child to go back through and identify the numbers.
7. Lastly, before he chows down on his snack, ask him to line up the crackers in numerical order.

When your child has successfully identified some or all of the numbers, it's time to eat!