As I mentioned in our F is for Friendly: Encouraging Kindness, Sharing, and Attentive Listening post, playing turn-taking games with your kids is a great way to help them start to learn to share.

Today’s PomPom Turn-Taking Game is a fun way to practise this skill while also incorporating some counting! It was also a great way to re-use the pompoms from our PomPom Ice Cream Shoppe.

To Play the PomPom Game – You Will Need:

approximately 50 coloured pompoms (any size)

wooden BBQ sticks or pipe cleaners

a large strainer

How to Play:

To set-up, you will need to fill the strainer with pompoms. Then poke the wooden sticks (or pipecleaners) through one side of the strainer and out the other side so the pompoms are trapped in the strainer.

Onetime enjoyed putting the sticks in and it was a great fine-motor workout!

Once all the sticks were in, we turned the strainer upside down and propped it up on some books. Now – the turn-taking began! Each of us pulled a stick out from the strainer and collected all the pompoms that dropped out.

We kept taking turns until all the pompoms had dropped out. It got really exciting near the end of the game when tons of pompoms all of a sudden started coming out like an avalanche with each pull of the stick!

As we were playing, each time the pompoms dropped, we practised counting how many had come out. This got a little difficult near the end of the game when lots of pompoms started coming out at once, but by that point, we had had lots of counting already.

In the 101 Kids Activities book, the “winner” of the game is the one with the fewest pompoms at the end. But you could also play it that the winner has the most pompoms. OR, downplay having a winner at all.

Because I don’t want to introduce competitive games with my son yet, we downplayed the whole “winner” bit. Instead, when all the pompoms had fallen out, we looked at each person’s pile and I asked my son who had the most and who had the least.

I found it really interesting that he said that I had the most when I had about 10 pompoms and he had this pile! I guess we’ll have to work on this concept some more! Good to know!

Overall, Onetime really liked this game and so did I! It was fun taking turns and it was exciting waiting to see what was going to drop out when you removed the stick.

Just a warning – if you decide to play this game, do NOT leave the room for a minute and leave your child with the pompoms, or you may end up with a mess like THIS!

According to Onetime, it was “snowing” at our airport! That snow was a little destructive too unfortunately.

If you enjoyed reading about this activity, be sure to FOLLOW our Mathematical Kids Pinterest board for more ideas for early math learners at: Follow One Time Through’s board Mathematical Kids on Pinterest.

Do you play any Turn-Taking Games with your kids? I’d love to hear about them. Leave a comment!

Happy Pom Pom Dropping! (why does that somehow sound rude?)

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