Spindle Box Repurposed

I always look for easy-prep activities to do with my 4 year old.  Being a mom to another toddler (1.5 years) as well as being a wife of a workaholic I always struggle with finding enough time to put together activities  to practice skills that we learn everyday.  Also being the selective 4 year old that D is, sometimes activities are a hit and sometimes a miss, a wasted effort.  So I normally am very cautious when putting together activities and make sure that they can be re-used at least one more time in another way, just so I feel better! I just don't want to print, cut or laminate for it to be used only once!

As you know from my pom-pom post, we've been working on our number facts up to 10.  As I was looking through Pinterest the other day I came across this cute pumpkin activity and what a great way to practice addition facts!  The down side was that I had to get those pumpkins or some kind of container, both not in my school supply stock!  Spindle Box was one item that I did not buy and one of the earliest items that I made and we've used a variety of counters to practice counting, but it hasn't been used in a long time and was collecting dust!  So I decided to put together this activity quickly.

I already had the spindle box, so all I did was write the equation of the sums corresponding to each slot on popsicle/craft sticks.  

To help with computing until she masters the facts, I made this cool bead counter, that is similar to "10" in the RightStart Abacus.

I came across this idea here and you can even find a you tube video of the tutorial to make this cool counter there.  I used some large wooden beads and lacing string to make this.  This neat counter is the point of interest for this activity and "I" am the control of error!

This post is linked to Montessori Monday and TGIF Linky Party