Personalized Felt Counting Set with Ten Apples Up On Top!

I love creating math activities for kids, especially when I’m able to combine them with literature. We were inspired by one of our favorite counting books, Ten Apples Up On Top!, to make a fun counting set from felt.

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If you’re not familiar with this story, Ten Apples Up on Top! is a Dr. Seuss rhyming book about animals who eventually end up balancing 10 apples on their heads. As a response to the story, I created a felt set based on the book for the kids to use on our own felt board. (Visit this link to see how to make your own felt board~ Homemade Felt Board.)

The felt set includes a photo of both kids, as well as 10 felt apples. Theo is currently practicing how to count to 3. He loves putting his mini-Theo onto the felt board and adding 3 apples on top of his own head! We practice counting each apple as he places it on the board.

Lucy is already very comfortable counting, so she’s been using the board to compare numbers. For example, she might place 4 apples on her head and 3 on Theo’s head. Then we talk about things like: Who has more apples? How many more apples does Lucy have? How many apples do Lucy and Theo have altogether? It’s such a great way for her to practice comparing numbers, adding, and subtracting!

How to Make the Felt Set

The felt set was very simple to make. You need some red, green, and brown felt (for the apples), some glue, and a photo of your child printed out on regular printer paper.

I took a picture of the kids with their hands on their heads, and then printed it out on some regular copy paper. (Hopefully your printer prints better than ours~ not the best quality, but the kids didn’t seem to mind!) Then, I cut both kids out, put glue on the back of the cut out paper, and glued them to some felt. (This spray glue works great on adhering the photos to the felt without any wrinkles!) Once the photos dried, I cut them out of the felt resulting in some felt-backed photos!

Next, I made the apples. I cut 10 apple shapes from the red felt. Then I glued on a brown stem and little green leaf onto each apple. Once they had dried we were ready to play!

This is such a fun set to have at home, and it would also make a great center for a classroom!

Be sure to check out all our activities for kids inspired by children’s books!