Numbers Geo Board

So much excitement for my little man's first ever geo board experience with the added bonus of working on his numbers at the same time.

Numbers geo board.

What you need:
- cork board

- pins

- elastic bands (I put mine in colour coded IKEA bowls)

The set up.

How it works:

I had seen the idea of making a simple geo board from cork and pins and knew that my son would love playing with one. I thought it would be nice to give it a number focus as well as just letting him explore the new materials. As you can see from the picture he was pretty pumped by the set up!

'No way Mummy!!!!!!'

To begin with he loved the novelty of being allowed to take the pins out of the cork and move them around the board. He then had a go at attaching the elastic bands to some random pins. After a little frustration and a few painful pings he got the hang of it.

Exploring the new materials.

After he experimented with the set up I asked if he could try and make a number using the materials. He looked at the examples I had given him and sensibly chose number '1' to attempt first. 

After making a small number '1' he soon discovered the fun of moving the pins further apart and seeing how far he could stretch the elastic band. I looked through squinted eyes waiting for the 'ping' and screaming to ensue but he proved me wrong and was very good at controlling the band.

Making a 'mega big' number '1'.

The other numbers were quite fiddly so we did those together. I then challenged him to form a number that wasn't already on his board. Again, he was rather sensible and chose number '7'.

Forming number '7' all by himself.

This proved to be a novel and exciting way to develop fine motor skills as well as working on his number recognition and formation. In the near future I hope to use the board for some basic addition with my son. I also look forward to exploring other ways to use a geo board to promote learning.