Sea shells, sand castles, and beach umbrellas are around these summer months. Make and play this summer muffin tin syllable counting game with your kids for some fine motor and phonemic awareness practice.
Affiliate links. Reprinted with permission from 100 Fun and Easy Learning Games for Kids. Take a peek inside our book here!
Summer Muffin Tin Syllable Counting Game for Kids
Say and count syllables in this self-checking summer-muffin tin syllable counting game. Sneak in a little fine motor practice and boost early literacy skills while picking up pom poms. Fine motor practice helps strengthen muscles for writing. Challenge your fine motor skills with the addition of a grabber. It makes it just a wee bit more difficult that way. Let the kids help draw the game pieces and you tie in art and creativity too.
Focus Skill: counting syllables in spoken words
Best for Children ages 3-7.
Materials for Summer Muffin Tin Syllable Counting Game
- 2″ (5-cm) circle template (a can or cup bottom works well)
- Cardstock
- Pencil
- Crayons or markers
- Scissors
- 12 cup muffin tin
- Buttons or pom poms
- Optional: Game Board Printable
Directions to Make the Summer Muffin Tin Syllable Counting Game for Kids
1. First, trace around the 2-inch (5-cm) circle 12 times on the card stock.
OPTIONAL = Skip 1-3 and print the free muffin tin syllable game boards here.
2. Then, draw a picture of a person, place or thing inside each circle. Cutting pictures from magazines works too! Some summer beach themed examples are: waves, shovel, shell, castle, sand dollar, pail, sandal, ball, umbrella, sun, boat.
3. Next, color and cut out each picture.
4. Finally, turn the circles over and make a dot for each syllable in the word. The back of the circle with the fence picture would have one dot; scarecrow would have two. A yellow highlighter or light pencil circles work best so they do not bleed through the paper.
- waves = 1 syllable
- shovel = 2 syllables
- shell = 1 syllable
- castle = 2 syllables
- sand dollar = 3 syllables
- pail = 1 syllable (You could use the word bucket also which is 2 syllables)
- sandal = 2 syllables
- ball = 1 syllable
- umbrella = 3 syllable2
- sun = 1 syllable
- boat = 1 syllable
Directions to Play the Summer Muffin Tin Syllable Counting Game for Kids
1. First, place the pictures, image side up, in the muffin tin. The player names the picture out loud and counts the number of syllables in the word.
2. Then, the player drops the same number of buttons or pom poms as syllables in the tin.
3. Next, play continues until all compartments have been filled with buttons. When this happens, the player self-checks and corrects the number of syllables by turning the picture over and comparing the number of buttons in each compartment with the number of circles on the back of the image.
Bonus Game Variations Summer Muffin Tin Syllable Counting Game for Kids
Place a set of wooden or magnetic alphabet letters next to the muffin tin. Have the children place the letter that represents the word’s beginning sound on top of the picture. U for Umbrella. We used the letters from this Melissa and Doug puzzle —> BUY HERE
For more Ocean Themed Activities try these…
- Ocean in a Tub + 37 more Ocean Inspired Activities for Kids
- Tot School at the Beach
- Ocean Animal Busy Bag
- Shark Themed Activities for Kids
- Writing in the Sand
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