Nursery Rhyme Math

As a Experience Early Learning (EEL) Blogger, I receive the EEL Preschool Curriculum in exchange for my honest opinions and authentic stories about our experiences using the curriculum. All opinions and thoughts are completely my own.

I never learned the rhyme “Hot Cross Buns.” Maybe because I never learned how to play an instrument… I don’t know. So when it was in our Experience Early Learning box, I too learned a new nursery rhyme and we had some memorable learning moments!

My kids were sick with the flu for 2 weeks (and you can read how we homeschooled during that nightmare here) and our final day of sickness was Valentine’s Day. But I wanted it to be special! So I found a chocolate playdough recipe and had all the ingredients (except glycerine) and had my kids make it with me. It smells soooo good. Obviously they love smelling it. They are still loving that playdough 2 weeks later and it was perfect to make “bread”.

We first made twisty bread, but the most fun was making “Hot Cross Buns.” Avaleigh just sang the rhyme as she rolled out balls of playdough and used her plastic knife to make cross shaped on the top of each one.

I grabbed a wire rack out of my cabinet and the kids had a blast counting and placing the buns on the rack- ready for the oven! Be sure to check out the video at the end of this post. We actually only had 11, and I said we should make one more. And my girl piped up with, “That will be a dozen!” Super excited to hear that!

I wanted to use our playdough buns for our Experience Early Learning (EEL) math game, but my kiddo placed them in the “oven” and they weren’t ready. But that was okay because EEL sent a dozen colored hot cross buns in our Daily Discovery bag for this activity!

Just FYI, this is a chalkboard table my husband made years ago. It’s been in storage for awhile, but I dug it back out and the kids LOOOOVE it. It is perfect for all the math games. My EEL teacher guide suggested for kids to roll a die and place that many buns on a plate. Since my girl is in kindergarten, I challenged her to add the 2 plates together and write it on the chalkboard table. My 2 year old son would throw the die, and together they would place the buns on the plate. Then my daughter would write out and complete the math problem.

I love it when the learning activity can easily accommodate them both even though there are 3.5 years between them. They absolutely loved this game. We played it after dinner so my husband was able to get in on the action. It’s the best when he too can see all the learning that is taking place in our home. In fact, this was Everett’s first time to use one-to-one correspondence and count to 4! Check it out.

So stinkin’ cute! Lovin our math time with EEL!

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