Curriculum / Numeracy Through Play / module 1

Counting the Kitchen

By OSH Founding Team✓ Verified by OSH Review Panel

Real counting with real things: the child counts, shares, and compares everyday kitchen objects.

Parent guide (what to say and do)

Give the child a bowl of dry beans or buttons. Say: 'Give three beans to me and three to you. Who has more?' Move one bean and ask again. Touch each object while counting aloud together; this builds one-to-one correspondence. Keep sessions under ten minutes and stop while it is still fun.

Learning material

Dry beans, buttons, bottle caps, or pebbles
Two bowls or plates

Practical exercises and activities

Indoor: set the table with exactly one plate per family member; share snacks equally between toys. Outdoor: collect ten leaves, count them into piles of two and five.

Materials required

A handful of dry beans or similar small safe objects. Choking-hazard caution below age three or with mouthing children.

Assessment checkpoints

Child counts eight objects touching each one exactly once, and answers which of two groups has more.

Learn with AI

Ready-made prompts for this module. Copy one into your AI assistant and it becomes a patient tutor that follows the OSH method: no lecturing, no rote learning, hands-on activities included.

For the student

A tutor that teaches this module step by step, asks questions, and never just gives answers.

For the parent or teacher

A coach that helps you prepare, deliver, and troubleshoot this lesson.

How to set this up in ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude

ChatGPT: Open ChatGPT → press your profile → My GPTs → Create a GPT → paste the prompt into Instructions → name it after the module → save for repeated lessons. Or simply paste the prompt at the start of a new chat.

Gemini: Open Gemini → Gems panel → New Gem → paste the prompt into the instructions box → name it after the module → save. The Gem stays available for every study session.

Claude: Open Claude → create a Project (or a Skill in Claude Code) → paste the prompt into the project instructions → every conversation in that project becomes a tutoring session for this module.

Safety note: children under 13 should use AI assistants together with a parent, and account age rules of each platform apply.

This module is part of the open OSH curriculum, licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0. Print it, adapt it, share it.