Did you know that there is actually an official day to celebrate Oreo cookies! At first thought, we’d likely pass this by as a day to let our kids eat a few Oreos, or even to enjoy a few ourselves. But you can have so much fun learning and playing with Oreos. Your kids really can learn with cookies! So on March 6, National Oreo Cookie Day, let’s use Oreos to help our kids learn in a really fun way.
Learning Activities
As you work on these fun learning activities, you can also learn the signs for LEARN and COUNT.
Stacking
How tall can we make an Oreo tower? Kids love to stack things as tall as they can get them. And while this is really fun, it also helps them with their fine motor skill development. Stacking helps little ones learn to grasp and release an object while controlling the placement of the object and the movement of their own fingers.
Patterns
The ability to identify patterns is an important math and logic skill. And you can use these little chocolate and cream sandwich cookies to have some fun with patterns.
Start by setting up a basic pattern, like one whole Oreo cookie followed by two cookies with half the top removed. Then ask your child to continue the pattern. Mix it up with different patterns, making them as simple or complex as you’d like.
Moon Phases
Here’s another way your kids can learn with cookies. Oreo cookies are perfect for learning about the moon phases! Let your kids nibble the top cookie into the right shape while you explain the phase. For example, for a full moon, they can remove the entire top cookie. For a first quarter moon or a waxing gibbous moon, they will remove just a section of the top cookie. At the end, you’ll have a circle of creamy moons showing the cycle of the moon’s phases. And you can learn the sign for MOON too!
Counting and Number Skills
Your kids can learn counting skills and number sense with cookies!
To work on basic number sense, ask your child to lay out one cookie, then two cookies. Go on up to three, five, or ten cookies, depending on what your child is ready for. Visualizing the literal quantities is important in learning the numbers.
To work on counting, set out a few Oreos and have your child count how many there are. Change it up and work on counting up to ten.
Subitizing is the ability to judge the number of items in front of us without counting. Most people can easily subitize up to five items before they would have to count. If your child has a good sense of number values already, you can work on subitizing. Simply lay out any number of cookies between one and five, and then ask how many there are. Do not allow counting, and challenge your child to answer as quickly as possible. You’ll be surprised at how quickly our brains know how many cookies there are without counting!
Games
There are lots of fun games to play with Oreo cookies as well! And as you play with these cookies, you can learn the signs for PLAY and GAME.
Many of us are familiar with the classic Minute to Win It activity where you begin with an Oreo on your forehead. Contestants must move the Oreo down to their mouths without using their hands. If the Oreo falls, they have to start over at the forehead. The first to get the Oreo into his or her mouth is the winner.
Another simple game is to pull out the middle cream section of the Oreo without breaking it. Set a timer and see who can remove the most cream sections in the time given.
For another fun challenge, try to carve or draw a picture in the cream part of the cookie. Then see if you can figure out what your family members drew!
Of course, for your kids, the funnest part of these learning or game activities will be eating the Oreos when you’re finished!
My Signing Time
Our Signing Time Dictionary is always free and full of easy to follow instructions for learning new signs. And if you haven’t checked out My Signing Time, take some time to look over the free to watch section and see if a My Signing Time digital subscription is right for your family. You can even try it out with a 14-day free trial right here.