Numbers with Thomas

I have been trying to organise an activity every day to do with C during Baby B's naptime.  Today however I've been disorganised and had nothing planned.  I therefore got our bean bags out of the cupboard and hoped an activity would develop as we went.

First of all we got out the sensory bean bags and discussed which were shiny, which were soft, which were rough and which was spotty and stripy.  I wasn't 100% C knew concepts like soft and shiny but she correctly identified all of them and we sorted them into piles.


We then moved on to the number bean bags.  C has started showing an interest in numbers however we are still in the very early stages.  Out of the blue she picked up her wooden Thomas the Tank Engine toy and placed it next to the "1" beanbag.  For those that are yet to discover Thomas with there little ones, Thomas has the number 1 painted on his side.  Whether she was simply matching the "1" shape or whether she recognised the word "one" after hearing me say it in relation to Thomas previously, I am not entirely sure.  It did however, give me an idea for an activity that would be right up her street.

I Googled images of the Thomas characters with numbers 1 to 7 (Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy and Toby), printed them off and cut them out.  I put them in a pile in front of the bean bags.  C immediately took up the challenge and without any prompting from me correctly matched up each engine with the bean bag with the corresponding number.  I was slightly taken aback.  I expected her to be able to do it with help, but not totally on her own.  She really is a clever little thing <3