Here’s a simple math game you can use as a book-tivity with any of the Pigeon books by Mo Willems. The newest Pigeon book was released today, April 1st! The new book is called The Pigeon Needs a Bath!
To play this game you will need some small cubes, such as linking cubes, or a similar manipulative. You could also use lima beans. You will need to print out the Pigeon, which you can find on coloring sheets available at PigeonPresents.com. (I am not able to provide a printable for this due to copyright.) Coloring sheets can be found in the Teachers’ Guides on the Grown Up Stuff section of Pigeon Presents. “The Duckling Gets a Cookie Event Kit” and “The Pigeon Wants a Puppy Event Kit” both have Pigeon coloring pages.
Color and cut around the pigeon’s outline and laminate if you choose. Give each child about 10 cubes. The cubes will need to fit in their hand(s), so use something that isn’t too large.
To play the game, children will drop a handful of cubes onto the Pigeon. They will count how many cubes landed on the Pigeon and how many cubes are off. (If it lands on the white part of the paper, but off the pigeon, we still consider it “on”.) You could have them compare to see which has the most cubes: on or off. You could also have children record their answers by writing the numeral on a dry erase board or paper. Children who are not yet able to write the numbers could stamp them if you have a set of number stamps.
This game could be adapted to work with any storybook character or any theme by using a different clipart image.