PSU Preschool Lab

Lesson Plan

Teacher: Clarissa Davis Date:

Activity Name: Spotted cow Domain Focus:
counting game Cognitive Math
Student will be able to develop numerical thinking
by using materials and movement
Goals/Objective Student will be able to increase their ability to count
s in sequence to ten and beyond
Follow simple rules with some prompting from
teacher or adult supervisor.

Multiple 8x10 sheet print outs of a cartoon white

cow
Materials Bag of 100 black pompom puffs small
One numerical dice so the child can see the actual
number

Location Small group tables but could be played in a center area

Start by showing the students a picture of a black and

white cow and ask them what color(s) is he. Then ask
them to count the spots on the cow. Then do you think all
black and white cows have the same amount of spots?
Show them another picture of the same kind of cow. How
Lesson
many spots are on this cow? Talk about the numerical
Introduction difference in the spots. (Ex this cow had 7 spots but this
cow has 10. That is 3 more than the first cow.)Today we
are going to play a game where we get to put spots on a
cow.

Have the cow cards setting out ready, one per child. Show
them the dice and demonstrate how to roll it. Explain that
whatever number the dice lands on, they take that many
pompom puffs and place anywhere on their cow. The
Main Activity teacher can set how high the count of puffs goes to for a
winner. Play the game a couple times with different
numbers of puffs for the winner to extend the numerical
thinking process.

Closure Once the game has been played a couple times, ask the
 PSU Preschool Lab
Lesson Plan
students if they think a cow could really have (30) spots?
What one of the winners had the highest number of spots?
Witch one had the lowest number of spots

Hold up the dice to a random number and randomly select

a student from the group. Ask the child to say the number,
or help them to say the number. Once they say the
Transition number, then hand them their name tags/center tags

Do all black and white cows have the same number of

spots? How many spots are on each of these cows? Do you
Questions think a cow could really have (30) spots? Witch one of the
winners had the highest number of spots? Witch one had
the lowest number of spots?

1. Change the type of animal to fit a unit or lesson. Ex

Individualizatio spots on a dog, scales on a fish, etc.
n 2. Advance to a dotted dice as the students progress to
1. specific children knowing the numbers. Now they can count the dots to
2. simplifications get the number.
3. extensions 3. Instead of using their fingers students could use
tweezers to pick up and place the pompoms and refine
their fine motor skills

1. Were the students able to identify what number was

showing on the numerical dice? Were they able to
be advanced to the spotted dice? Were they able to
throw the dice properly and gently? Were the
students able to pick up the pompoms with fingers?
Were they able to pick them up with tweezers? This
can be determined by observation.
2. Could the student count in numerical order up to
ten? Could the student count in numerical order
Assessment above ten? Could the students identify if a number
was higher or lower than another number? Ex 4 is
bigger than 2. Could the student pick up the correct
number of pompoms shown on the dice? This can
be determined by observation and listening.
3. Could the students follow the directions of the game
after hearing them less than twice on their own?
This can be determined by observation.
PSU Preschool Lab
Lesson Plan