Mini muffin sorting set for preschool groups
Author: Majella
Teacher
A new material, always fun to try out! It looks very cheerful because of all the colors and the material looks good and sturdy and feels that way too. It is intended as a preparatory arithmetic skill. You can count, sort and arrange with it.
But this material also lends itself well to fine motor skills. The included 'biter' / tweezers to grab the mini muffins and release them above the muffin shape, requires some practice. It seems contradictory, you have to squeeze to let go of something and when you want to grab the mini muffin you have to relax the muscle strength. I think you have to be very aware of that, it can be quite confusing for some children.
In that case I would just leave the snack and use the fingers, nothing wrong with that! In fact, you can have them pick up the mini muffins with three fingers and thus stimulate the division in the hand. In preparation for learning to write later, a nice bonus! If this doesn't work, have them clamp an extra small bead or paperclip under the little finger and ring finger. Then the three 'writing' fingers are automatically left to grab the mini muffin with.
The cards that are placed in the shapes indicate the assignments. If there are colors on the card, then you place them in the shape. If you see numbers, then you can start counting. And with some cards you can do both, then you count a certain number of mini muffins of a certain color. Really fun! If you want to vary, take the dice. There is one with numbers and one with colors. Depending on what the children can already do, you take them one by one at first and later both at the same time.
A beautiful and attractive material that can be used in many ways in nursery groups.
Tip: buy a separate extra tweezer so two children can play together.
