Muffin Tin Syllable Counting Activity

Here’s a fun literacy game for kids – muffin tin syllable counting! Owen is new to this skill, and this game was a great way to learn.

We found this game in the book 100 Fun & Easy Learning Games for Kids (affiliate link). This awesome new book was written by my blogging friends Kim and Amanda over at The Educator’s Spin On It, and I highly recommend it for anyone who works with 3-7 year olds! It’s a great resource for parents, teachers, and homeschooling parents. I love how the front of the book contains a list of skills that kids should master, and then the book is broken down into chapters on reading, writing, math, science, music and art, and geography. The activities are lots of fun, but are definitely not fluff. Each one addresses a skill necessary for success in school. It’s a great book for adding some sparkle to your existing homeschool or classroom curriculum, or for use at home as enrichment.

For the muffin tin syllable counting game, you will need a 2 inch circle (I traced the bottom of a tupperware kid’s cup), paper or card stock, colored pencils, scissors, buttons, and a 12 cup muffin tin.

Trace and cut out 12 paper circles. On one side of each circle, draw a picture of a person, place, or thing.

Kids will say the name of the picture, count the syllables, and then drop that number of buttons into the muffin tin.

We worked on counting syllables by feeling how many times our chin moved up and down while saying the word. I had set up this activity for Owen (7), but Jonathan (4) wanted to do it too! And he did! I love how he is not reading yet (and doesn’t even recognize very many letters), but he was still learning about literacy.

Here are the pictures we used. You don’t have to have amazing drawing skills! Just go with easy options. I did a tree, boat, alligator (if your child calls it a crocodile, it has the same number of syllables!), hamburger, banana, rain, pizza, strawberries, apple, playground, Legos, and mountains.

Be sure to check out the book 100 Fun & Easy Learning Games for Kids!