1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, EAT

When I told Sawyer we were making Number Salad, his first response was, "But I don't like salad."  What he meant was, "I don't like lettuce."  When I explained that the ingredients that we were using were actually all fruit and cheese he was at least willing to give it a try. 

We started off with all the ingredients in separate bowls like the set up for making bagel faces.  This led to lots of snacking while cooking, just with fruit this time instead of veggies.  Let your child do as much of the cutting themselves as possible.  The melon and banana are good candidates for slicing with a table knife.

Mollie's recipe is:


1 handful of coconut

2 Tablespoons of OJ concentrate

3 slices of Orange

4 slices of apple

5 cubes of cheese

6 slices of banana

7 pieces of melon

8 grapes

Stir 9 times

EAT.

I thought this was a pretty tasty fruit salad.  I loved the mix of fruit with the Monterey Jack cheese.  Just a warning:  Sawyer didn't touch his salad once it was all mixed together.  But, he did eat a lot of each ingredient individually. 

 

Counting out the pieces for each step was good practice.  Get some extra counting practice by making several servings.  Also, you could do countdown salad and start at 10 working backwards.  You could let your child determine which ingredients to use for each number so they would end up with more of the things they prefer to eat.  And best of all you could make "Number Salad" with whatever ingredients you have around- fruits or veggies.  I want to try one that has more berries and some mango.  Or try making "Number Trail Mix" using dry ingredients.

 

Happy counting!