Anytime you can have a hands-on counting activity, it's always going to be more engaging for your students. I am constantly using pom poms in my classroom because they are easy to clean up and fun to touch. For this activity the students practiced scooping "ice cream" into the ice cream cups! The little spoons were perfect for them to hone in those fine motor skills to pick up the pom poms. Be sure to download the Free Ice Cream Counting Printable here!
For this activity I placed stickers in the bottom of the ice cream cups and wrote numbers from 1-20 on them. I asked the students to order the cups in several different ways:
- order from 1-20
- order them by even numbers
- order them by odd numbers
- skip count by 3's
After we ordered the numbers, then they scooped that same amount of pom poms into each cup! This activity practiced number recognition, ordering numbers, and counting one-to-one to give each cup the correct number of ice cream scoops. 
I wanted to include a quick assessment to check for understanding. Download the Free Ice Cream Counting Printable here!
Each ice cream cup has a number in it, and my students drew that same number of scoops on their paper. It was perfect to check and see who needed this center again the following week!
