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Learn with Shopkins: Teach Numeracy Using Manipulatives

Learn with Shopkins! These little manipulatives are PERFECT for teaching counting, number recognition, basic addition and subtraction. Don't have shopkins? No worries any miniatures work well. Click through to get your free printable. Play-based learning, learning through play

Learn with Shopkins? Rewind to the end of December last year and I would have laughed at this title. It was around that time that I wrote a post about minimizing and organizing toys. In it, I wrote something along the lines of, “I would imagine my daughters Shopkins have a short shelf life and won’t be around for long.” At first, I thought they were pencil toppers, which was wrong. The truth is I really had no clue what Shopkins were for let alone if they held any play value. As a result, I concluded that they were a fad and pretty pointless. Boy, was I wrong! Not only does my daughter love them and play with them every day, but so does my son.

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The motivation behind this activity is to promote numeracy – number recognition and counting as well as basic addition. Children retain more and are able to show more advanced skill-sets in the context of play. While the title of this piece is “Learn with Shopkins” this activity can be done with any of the small toys your child has around the house. Lego figures, miniature Thomas the Train toys, and mini My Little Ponies are all great manipulatives to use.

The first step is to grab several manipulatives. Again, we like to learn with Shopkins because there are several in each package, easy to manipulate, and are inexpensive, but it’s totally up to you. Then follow this how-to-learn with Shopkins using one of my printables provided.

Learn with Shopkins: Teaching Early Numeracy

Learn with Shopkins! These little manipulatives are PERFECT for teaching counting, number recognition, basic addition and subtraction. Don't have shopkins? No worries any miniatures work well. Click through to get your free printable. Play-based learning, learning through play

What you need
  • Shopkins or similar
  • Printable
  • Scissors
The how-to

Print off any variation of the printables. Cut them out. Mark numbers in blank circle. Then, encourage your child to match the corresponding digit with the corresponding number of Shopkins.

Once your child has mastered matching the digit with the appropriate number of manipulatives, prompt further learning by removing a Shopkin or adding one resulting in an inaccurate sum. Then discuss the resulting number and how the issue could be rectified.

Learn with Shopkins! These little manipulatives are PERFECT for teaching counting, number recognition, basic addition and subtraction. Don't have shopkins? No worries any miniatures work well. Click through to get your free printable. Play-based learning, learning through play

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Click the image below to get another great idea using Shopkins or other miniatures!
Learn with Shopkins! These little manipulatives are PERFECT for teaching counting, number recognition, basic addition and subtraction. Don't have shopkins? No worries any miniatures work well. Click through to get your free printable. Play-based learning, learning through play

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