We started by re-reading some of our favorite counting books.

In My Garden, by Ward Schumaker is a great book for emergent readers because the simple text directly correlates with the images.  Our 5 year old felt very successful after “reading” it.

So...I found some quiet moments to break away and peacefully create the “shell numbers” myself. They turned out to be my little contribution to the book.

Our 4 year old loved the visual cues in Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews.

I tried to entice the girls into making “shell numbers”, by leaving out this number chart.  Our youngest enthusiastically participated throughout the entire process of making the number 10. Beyond that she had no interest...

After we finished reading, we took some time to reflect and have a discussion about what type of counting book they would like to make.  They came up with the idea of using our beloved shell collection.  They had a wonderful time going through our shell jar in search of just the right ones for each shot.  We also stumbled upon many shells and rocks that held specific memories for us and shared some fun stories.

Her enthusiasm carried over into Roger Tory Peterson’s Numbers book.  Being a bird aficionado, she truly enjoyed counting all of her favorite birds.

Arlene Alda’s 123 was a delight and is filled with beautiful photographs that represent each number.  This book was the inspiration for the “shell numbers”.

This is another great activity for developing the one-to-one correspondence for our 4 year old.  She would carefully count each shell 2 to 3 times to make sure that she had displayed the correct amount.

After printing all of the final photos, and putting them in a bare book, we thoroughly enjoyed reading our own counting book.