A Birthday Countdown Chain!

There’s a 6 year old boy at our house just days away from his birthday!  He is so excited.  He’s been talking about it for weeks…what his cake will look like, what theme he’d like to have (this year it will be dominoes, of course).

A tradition we began a couple of years ago before MBug’s birth was a countdown chain.  So naturally, when the beginning of September rolled around, ALuv was ready to make his birthday countdown chain.

Reasons Why I Love Countdown Chains

1. it’s F.U.N. for the kiddos (a great way to sneak in some learning, too!)
2. it integrates MANY areas such as writing, fine motor skills, coloring/creative drawing, numeral recognition, rote counting, one-to-one correspondence, patterns, calendar math, and concept of time (in such a visual way!)
3. it can be adapted for so many occasions.

Materials:

• An upcoming special event such as a birthday, family vacation, or other special occasions.
• strips of construction paper of different colors- I recommend the size be around 2″ x 9″ (If you save strips of leftover construction paper from other crafts, you can use them for this activity…a great way to recycle!)
• scissors
• tape or staples (glue doesn’t dry fast enough)
• pencil/markers

How To:

1. Get your materials prepped beforehand.  Your child can help you pick out his favorite colors for the chain.  {I like to integrate patterns into the colored chain, so when its put together, it might go something like this: red, yellow, blue, red, yellow blue, etc.  The patterns can be as complicated or as simple as you’d like.  ALuv told me from the get-go that he didn’t want a pattern, so I just went with it.}

2.  Establish how many days there are until the big event by counting together on the calendar.  Depending upon the age of your child, either have your child write the numbers or you can help.  If you’re going for a pattern, figure out which numbers go on which colors.

3. Once all the numbers are written, decorate the strips (and optional step).  ALuv chose to write “Happy Birthday” on the last link.

4. Link the pieces of paper together in order of number.  Again, if you’re doing a color pattern, emphasize the pattern as you put it together.

5. Mount your chain in a prominent place (ours is in our schoolroom by our calendar).

6. Each day, cut or remove one link until the big day!

~Becky