Stories for Children:Number Story-Activity

This is a short story-activity to give the child gentle exposure to addition and subtraction. It begins as a story which can later be executed as an activity. Before you read the story, here are a few instructions for the adult in charge.

• Start by narrating the story to the child.
• Draw pictures of the leaves or use actual leaves as you narrate the story, so the child understands the story better.
• After narrating the story, do the same activity with your child.
• In the story, the leaves are restricted to three. You can use as many leaves as you want depending on the age and interest level of the child.
• If the child is not interested in doing this activity immediately after listening to the story, do not force the child to participate. Keep it for another day when the child is more receptive.
• Do not use the terms addition or subtraction. The aim is just to give a gentle exposure to those concepts and not to teach them in detail as done in higher classes.

Story

Once upon a time, there lived a girl named Kim.

One morning, Kim was wandering in her backyard when she saw some leaves on the ground.

“Oh these leaves are so pretty!” said Kim, as she picked up one and looked at it.

She placed the leaf aside and said, “This is one leaf.”

Next she picked up another leaf and placed it next to the first one.

She looked at the leaves and counted them.

 “ONE.TWO. Now I have two leaves,” she said.

Feeling excited, she picked up another leaf and placed it next to the two leaves.

After looking at the leaves in a row, she counted them again and said, “ONE. TWO. THREE. Now I have three leaves.”

Suddenly, the neighbour’s puppy appeared and ran away with one leaf in his mouth.

“No! Hey pup, come back. I want that leaf,” shouted Kim.

But the puppy vanished next door.

“Never mind, said Kim, looking at the two leaves on the ground, “I can get another one.”

She stared at the two leaves on the ground and discovered something exciting.

“Hey, wait a minute. One leaf is gone and I have two leaves again!” exclaimed Kim, thrilled at her discovery.

She looked at the two leaves on the ground.

“Let me do what the pup did. Let me pick up another leaf and put it away,” said Kim as she bent down to pick up one leaf.

She kept it aside and came back to look at what was remaining.

“Now I have just one leaf left! And that is what I started with,” said Kim, “I loved playing this game!”

And she did this activity over and over and over again!

Kim enjoyed learning with leaves!






<p><a href="http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=905">Image: Pixomar / FreeDigitalPhotos.net</a></p>