Count the Number of Similar Objects

This is an activity where the child has to count the  similar objects. The objects have different colours and this activity also tests the ability of your child to recognise  colours. This is one way to know whether your child has any difficulty in identifying colours. If the child has difficulty in recognising the colours please go to our exercises on colours .

The related activities on colour in this website are: Colouring the picture, Identifying colours, Write sentences using colours.

A picture is given at the top. Below this images are displayed. The challenge is to identify the object similar to that given on the top and to count the number of such objects. As the child progresses in this activity, more images are included and the level of difficulty increases.

Tips for you, the parents:

Some children with difficulty in learning maths may have difficulty in counting also.Does your child have difficulty in counting objects?What can you do to help your child?

You can invent many activities for your child to do at home. Some examples are given below.

  1. Laying the table can be a good counting activity.
    1. Give your child a big plate with 16 biscuits on it and four empty plates. Ask the child to keep equal number of biscuits on each plate. Observe how she/he goes about this activity. If the child understands the concept of division, she/he would divide 16 by 4 and would put on each plate 4 biscuits. A child, who cannot use the concept of division, would keep one biscuit on each plate and would complete the task in four steps. You can ask your child to count the biscuits on each plate.
    2. Give your child 12 rotis and ask her/him to keep 3 rotis on one plate, 5 rotis on another plate and 2 rotis on the third plate. Observe how your child has done the task. Did your child struggle to do this activity?

      Many such activities of distribution can be tried at home.

  2. Ask the child to count notes and coins. Another version would be to give her a bundle of 100 rupee notes and ask her/him to give you Rs500. Did your child have any difficulty in doing this activity? Repeat the activity with few ten rupee notes. If your child is comfortable with counting in fifties, this activity can be done with fifty rupee notes also. Here more than counting is involved. Similar activities can be done with coins also.
  3. When you bring vegetables home, mix all the vegetables and ask your child to sort the vegetables and then count each pile of vegetables.

    Think of situations where maths can be applied at home. Learning activities need not be always with pen and paper. Often, learning can be fun without pen and paper.

  4. Play Ludo with your child. The entire family can play this game together and have lots of fun. This is a game where lots of counting takes place when moving the coins.This game makes the child think and devise strategies to win. It can also speed up the counting process.

    Snakes and Ladders is another game where counting is involved.

  5. Buy a white board and different coloured ink pens to write on the board. You can do many activities on the board. Few examples are given below :

     

    D    n   k   l

    O       p

         G     y 

    J  l     e

       

    1. A   b   c

          D         e

       F     g        h          i

           N       

      Ask the child which box has more letters.

    2. You can make the above activity more challenging by having two different size boxes. You can also have other geometrical shapes – triangles, circles, shapes with more sides etc.

       

           M        p

       G     h  y    m

       

          S     n    o

             J      k    p

      O  c    e     f  l

                    a

      K  n       I 

                         s

         f          j               q                                      

      M  n   p  k  e   t   h    y    I        n

            S    l     o    k    d     b      w 

      N                  n                           z
    3. You can have activities with different colours also.

       

      5    0  3   7     3     6   q    8

       

      u   4   8      9    6   8       3

       

      2   9   0  4  3  6  8  7    1   0   9

       

      t   3  6  9  r 0    2  5  6  7  8  4

       

       

      G  u    m  r  y  u  o   q   6   o

       

       

       

         R     7     8     1   4     0    g      y     2   1    7   4      3

        

       7      n    u      8         9        f     s       k       0  5  3 

       

           E  w  4   1   0  8   5    6    2     0        5     1       7

       

       

      You can also ask your child to find the number of objects with red colour, blue colour etc in each box. You can also ask your child to compare the number of blue or red or green objects in the two boxes. The concept of greater and smaller also can be taught this way.

    4. You can also have activities with different font sizes. Ask the child to find out how many letters each font has.

       

                    g       s    h    k   l         m         n       p       q           e            

       

            n         o    p    r    s     w    v      h      d      u          y             

       

                   t     s       x      z      g     b      v     n     o       r       d        j        

       

      You can also ask the child to copy from the board. This would be a good exercise if your child is slow in copying or misses lines or omits words while copying.

      The above exercises, in addition to testing the counting skills, also test other skills such as visual discrimination, colour recognition and spatial intelligence. These are also useful to improve concentration. Children with attention disorder (ADHD) may benefit from these exercises.

      You can also have a mastery test for your child after she/he has done enough practice. Ask your child to prepare questions to test you. And ask her/him to make the test as tough as possible!

      While answering the questions make a few mistakes. Your child would love to correct you!

You can get lots of material from the net on counting objects. You can also buy books on this topic.

Remember, you can be the best resource for your child! There is no limit to the activities that you can devise with a board and a few different colour pens.