We put them in groups of 2's and 5's, and we played around with even numbers of beads and split them in half.
Then I thought it'd be fun to go around the house, finding all loose change, and playing with money. That's real world. Heck, the 7 year old girl at the Chinese restaurant down the street keeps the books, and I want my girls to be that good at math, too!
We used our skip counting to count pennies. We used skip counting to count dimes. We used skip counting to count nickels. We got to see how many pennies it took to make each coin and they thought of at least two ways to make change for a specific amount. Then we just slid over a handful of change and counted away.
Of course, we do not encourage our girls to rob banks, but we do encourage pretend play and physical exercise with a giant dose of imagination and FUN!
How many times have you seen a movie where someone is trying to steal the most treasured jewel or crown and they must get through the laser beams? I've even seen Barbie do somersaults and back flips to get through a laser filled room.
This afternoon our hallway became the laser beam room. Madeline, having finished her work and being full of energy, started to create our beams with some 70% off Valentine streamer I found. She had a great start! (Don't mind my mess, we're moving and I'm shuffling stuff around.)