Lucky Charms Sorting & Counting

What do St. Patrick's Day, sugary cereal, and math have in common? This awesome counting and sorting activity created by Colleen Gallagher of TeachingHeart.net! In the spirit of the holiday, students are invited to collect all the "lucky charms" they can find {the marshmallows in the famous Lucky Charms® cereal, of course!}, sort them by type, then count and record the number of each on their worksheet - and maybe snag a few while they're at it! Activity Extensions

• Before completing the worksheet, consider having students go on an actual treasure {or charm!} hunt! Hide paper charm replicas - one for each student - throughout the classroom then set students loose for a ten minute hunt. Once they've found a charm, invite your preschoolers to turn it in to you for their baggie of Lucky Charms® cereal and worksheet. Consider designating one charm as "special", hiding it in a more difficult location and keeping it's status 'hush hush'. Reward the student(s) who find these charms with a special sticker, treat, etc.
• As an extension to the worksheet, have students use their charm marshmallows to create a bar graph for easier comparison of the totals. Here's an example using colorful goldfish. A simple worksheet for the charms can be created using word processing software.

  

Be sure to visit Colleen's site for the download and loads of other early childhood activities for your classroom!

Happy Sorting & Counting!