Wooden Counting Disks

Good morning all!!

This morning I want to share with you a very super simple project! Wooden countings disks!

Master J loves learning with his hands. He enjoys textures, and being able to get hands on learning is something he really thrives with. Lately we've been focusing more on numbers, and in particular counting to 10.

I was going to print out some flash cards for him, and was hunting in the craft cupboards for the laminate sheets when I knocked over a basket of supplies. Inside was these wooden disks that I'd asked a friend to slice from an old tree branch years ago for buttons, and never got around to finishing.

The idea hit me, that I could turn them into counters instead of printing something and here we are!

The best thing about this project is you can make as many or as few as you like, in whatever size you want! Plus, it's all made from dollar store items, and FREE items! This entire set cost me a grand total of $2. Now that's what I call cheap play!

You will need some wooden disks. Mine are sliced from a tree branch when we trimmed the trees back a few years earlier, but you could always use some driftwood from the beach, or go for a walk in the park and find a branch that has come out of a tree already. Keep in mind though that the thickness of the branch will play a part in the size of the numbers you can use. Cut your disks about a cm thick using a saw (or if you don't have one, ask a friend!) They don't even need to be the same thickness, some of mine are not. I figure we can talk about the thickness too and discuss which ones are higher and lower.

Next you'll need number stickers, and some paint. The paint I already had, and actually, it's puff paint that I use for my felt pieces, but any paint will work fine. The number stickers I had to go buy. We have a local store called Shiploads, which is a discount/bargain store, and I knew they had a huge range of cheap stickers, so that's where I went. Boy was I right, soooo many stickers! They also had a selection of rub on scrapbook transfers that I wouldn't mind trying later on, but for now I opted for foam glitter stickers. Mainly because I liked the added texture they would give the disks, plus the size looked pretty close to what I wanted. They cost me $2 for a big pack, and I have some to spare!

The rest, is super simple! The foam numbers had sticky backs, but I also added some 450 clear glue to them just to make sure they didn't come off, and positioned them into place on the wooden disks.
Then, I used a toothpick and dotted on some coloured dots for the matching disks. The puff paint also added another layer of texture.

And that, is it! Let it all dry overnight and you'll be done! Master J loves touching these. He tells me how the back of the disk is smooth, how the numbers are rough and the spots are bumpy. Best of all, we're starting to get more familiar with numbers, which is fantastic!

Maybe once he's a little older and we start looking at adding and subtracting, I'll make a few more and some symbols to extend the set further.

This idea would also work fantastic with  shapes and learning pattern sequences!

I hope you enjoyed this post, let me know how your little one goes with their disks if you make some too!