"Where is Finger 1?" Finger Number Twirls

My youngest and tiniest student had her 7th lesson today. She is two years old and an absolute joy! We have been focusing on one letter of the music alphabet each week, and today we wrapped up with Letter G (more about that later), so it was time to begin working on finger numbers together. I wanted to create something that would be cute, fun, and memorable for a Pre-K child to use to identify finger numbers. I thought about using a ring with a number 1 on it to identify her thumbs as finger 1, but I didn't have any rings so I decided to use finger puppets instead. There are quite a few cute finger puppet templates from which to choose if you search online hard enough, but I couldn't find any with numbers on them, so I decided to make my own!

Objectives:

• To teach finger number 1 to my youngest student, age 2
• To offer a fun way to remember finger number 1
• To incorporate movement and singing into learning finger numbers

Ages:

• Pre-K through early elementary

Levels:

• Young beginners

Materials:

• White or colored card stock
• Printer
• These wonderful zebra number circles from Tales of a Teacherista
• Pipe cleaners
• Wire cutters
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Instructions:

• Print the colored zebra number circles onto white card stock, or print the black and white zebra number circles onto white or colored card stock
• Cut out the circles you need (I cropped and pasted and decreased the size of the circles until I had 4 small sets of numbers 1 to 5 on the same page, two for my student and two for me)
• Cut the pipe cleaners in half with wire cutters
• Wrap about 80% of the short pipe cleaner around a pencil or your pinky to create a corkscrew shape (a "twirl")
• Hot glue the zebra number circle to the straight end of the pipe cleaner
• Place on your student's thumbs and get ready to sing this little "piggyback song" (song that uses a familiar tune but has new words) that I made up. Sing to the tune of "Are You Sleeping?"
• Where is finger 1? Where is finger 1? {sing with hands behind back}
• Here I am! Here I am! {bring thumbs from behind back}
• Wiggle finger 1. Wiggle finger 1. {wiggle thumbs}
• Twirl around. Twirl around. {spin around in a circle}