Counting Goats Math Game

I love combining picture books with learning activities. Let’s Count Goats by Mem Fox inspired our counting goats math game. Make some paper goat puppets and use them for a counting game while engaging in pretend play. I get commissions for purchases made through the affiliate links in this post.

Let’s Count Goats by Mem Fox

Let’s Count Goats! by Mem Fox is a silly count-to-ten book. I just love the illustrations by Jan Thomas. Count the goats in different scenes. “Here we see an over goat. And this one’s going under. But can we count the crossing goats terrified of thunder?” Many of the goats are found eating things – a table, luggage, a sand castle, and more. Check out the book and you’ll be smiling and laughing in no time.

How to Make Goat Puppets

You’ll Need:

• Paper
• Pencils/markers
• Craft sticks
• Clothespins
• Scissors
• Glue
• Tape
• Small cardboard box

I drew 4 goats in the style of Jan Thomas. (If you don’t want to draw goats yourself, you can just trace them from the book.) I then made copies of the page to have 12 goats total. Aiden (then age 3) wanted to leave the goats white, but you could always have your child color the goats.

Cut out the goats and glue them to craft sticks to create goat puppets. Place the craft sticks into clothespins to allow the goats to stand up. (Our craft sticks and clothespins were sent to us by CraftProjectIdeas.com.) It took a while to cut each goat out. To spend less time cutting, just cut a circle around the goats instead of following the outline. 

One of the scenes in the book has goats crossing in a boat. We chose to create a boat for our goats. Cut out a boat shape slightly larger than a cardboard box. Aiden chose to color his boat with a bit of red pencil. Tape the boat to the side of the box.

Place the goat puppets in the boat. The clothespins should allow the puppets to stand up. If you need more stability (some clothespins are very level while others work well), tape the clothespins to the box. Then, you can add the puppets to the clothespins.

Counting Goats Math Game

The goal of the game is to count goats as you add them to the boat. Call out a number and have your child add that many goats to the boat. You could also roll dice or use number cards to select the number.

How many goats can you fit in the boat? Not only did we have fun counting goats, but we also used the goat puppets for pretend play. The goats floated around the room in their boat. Aiden also placed goats on the top of a tall box – his rocket ship. The clothespins were perfect for attaching the goat puppets to box. He and the goats blasted off to space. How many goats are in the rocket ship?

Where will your child take the goats?

More Counting Games for Kids

• Dragon Math: Kindergarten Counting Game
• Garbage Truck Counting Game
• Mouse Counting Activity with Stamps
• House Number Sorting Activity

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This post was originally published on May 30, 2014.