Number Puzzles

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**I do NOT recommend allowing your tot to use any of these items unsupervised.**

I was reminded by a recent post at The Adventures of Bear that I wanted to make some matching "puzzle" cards for RockerTot. We've been adding more numbers and counting activities to our Tot School, so I decided to make him some number cards.


The materials I used were mini sheets of colored foam (I bought a pack of 32 at The Dollar Tree), foam number stickers (also from The Dollar Tree) and glue.

Mine have two layers of foam for stability and to strengthen the "puzzle cut". I suppose you could skip the smaller rectangles, but RockerTot is pretty rough with his things.

I cut the amount of rectangles I needed to a size slightly smaller than half of a sheet (I made sure to leave a border around all edges). I glued the rectangles (in mixed sets of two) to the mini foam sheets. I then placed one number sticker (in contrasting colors) at the top of each rectangle. I used scraps left over from making the rectangles to cut very small squares. I glued the appropriate number of these to each rectangle (matching the color of the squares to the color of the number).


I usually run an extra line of glue around all edges where foam meets foam to help prevent them from peeling apart... even around the stickers. It is practically invisible when it dries.

When all the glue dried, I cut the sheets in half to separate all the cards. I then had fun making different types of "puzzle cuts" to help RockerTot as he tries to match up the pieces. I also ran a small line of glue along the "puzzle cuts" to prevent splitting and add rigidity.


Here is RockerTot's new tray. I added the basket so that he would understand that it is not one big puzzle (which he thought when I first showed him the cards as they were drying).


You could probably use many other materials to achieve the same (or better) results. I used foam because it's what we have. I also like the fact that both the numbers and counting squares are raised so that there is a tactile aspect to this tool as well.



EDITED TO ADD: You can check out some more lovely number cards here.