I am finally a bit more consistent at getting to the number 10 when counting on my own, and yet numbers even higher than that seem incomprehensible to me. Mom decided to introduce the concept of 100, a high number, by making a paper clip counting 100 train together.
In the simple train book Crossing by Philip Booth, the gates go down at a small town railroad crossing in the earlier part of the century. Kids jump and cheer as it passes. They peek at each other underneath the cars and name the brands they see on the train cars. They count the cars (although not every number is shown in the book), and at the last car they yell “caboose!” I love the rhythmic rhyme in Crossing, and I also love that the illustrations are so rich. One two-page spread even shows the entire 100-car train!
Although a preschooler does not need to know how to count so high, understanding the concept of getting to a “huge” number is an important step. We can count high together to come to understand 100 days, 100 bites, 100 train cars, or 100 paper clips. Once we start counting days in school (starting this fall!), making a 100 train will be a great way to celebrate 100 days of school. It seems like so much to a young child, but by counting one at a time, or by counting to 10 ten times, we can get there together.
We started by counting to ten, and found the page in the book that showed the count to ten. Then, Mom made the first chain of ten in the colors that I suggested.
For the next few groups of ten, I did similar colors and I helped me make sure each was the same length. Then, we put our paper clip 100 train together. I loved seeing how long it was. We laid it next to the full two-page spread of the train in the book so we could see how long both of them were.
