Emmie Game

We try to incorporate learning into every day activities.  We've been playing the Emmie Game since Gabi was 18 months old.  "Emmie" is baby-speak for M&Ms.  Or at least what my kids call them!  In this game we combine sorting with counting.  We buy individual "fun-sized" packs of plain M&Ms and each kid gets a pack.  They pour the "emmies" into the purple oval, then sort them based on color.  Afterwards, we count the number of emmies for each color, and then count the total number of emmies.  This is why Addy can count to exactly twenty-two... the bags average18-22 emmies.  Gabi can do the game independently, but likes to have my mom or me to count the emmies with her at the end.  We get Addy started by putting one red emmie on the red column, and then asking her to find the rest.  We count the individual colors and total M&Ms with her.  Rafe gets half a bag.  He likes to put his emmies in the purple oval and will randomly place them on the board.  Occasionally we'll get to count with him, but many times he eats at least some of them first.  Clearly, this game is easily adaptable for a wide range of ages. 

This is a scanned image of our Emmie Game board.

Click here to print off your own Emmie Game board!  If you don't want to use colored ink, print in black and white and color it in.  For some reason it wants to print a second blank page.  This is my first time using Google Docs, so just click print page 1 only, and maybe next time I'll be better at it!