Pancake Number Match – Lesson plans

February 26, 2015 by Sherri Osborn Leave a Comment

There is no better activity than one where you can combine plain old fun with learning. This homemade game from Coffee Cups and Crayons does exactly that. To make this game, all you need is 2o circles made out of heavy paper and a pen to write on the circles. You will also need to find a spatula – either toy or real – that can be used once you are ready to play the game.

Learn how to make and then play this game by visiting this tutorial: Pancake Number Match

Here are a few more lesson plan ideas using the Pancake Number Match activity in a play-based learning setting:

1. Pancake Stack Counting Challenge

Objective: Develop number recognition, counting, and fine motor skills.
Materials: Pancake number cards, small plates, spatula, play money (optional).
Activity:

Lay out the pancakes and have kids “cook” them in order from 1-10.
Challenge them to stack pancakes on a plate based on a given number.
Optional: Add play money so they “buy” the correct number of pancakes.

2. Pancake Addition Café

Objective: Practice simple addition and counting skills.
Materials: Pancake number cards, order slips (index cards), pretend play café setup.
Activity:

Kids take turns being a chef and customer.
The customer picks an order slip (e.g., “I want 3 + 2 pancakes”).
The chef has to find the correct pancake numbers to serve.

3. Pancake Number Hop

Objective: Enhance number recognition and gross motor skills.
Materials: Large printed pancake numbers, floor space.
Activity:

Spread out the pancake numbers on the floor.
Call out a number, and kids hop to the correct pancake.
Variation: Call out number sequences (e.g., 1, 3, 5) for them to follow.

4. Flip & Find: Odd vs. Even Pancakes

Objective: Introduce odd and even numbers.
Materials: Pancake number cards, spatula.
Activity:

Lay the pancakes number-side down.
Kids take turns flipping one over and sorting it into “odd” and “even” stacks.
Discuss patterns in odd/even numbers.

5. Pancake Recipe Fractions (for older kids)

Objective: Introduce simple fractions using a fun pretend play scenario.
Materials: Paper pancakes labeled with ½, ⅓, ¼, etc., mixing bowls, measuring cups.
Activity:

Give kids a “recipe” (e.g., “We need ½ a pancake and ¼ of another”).
Have them “cut” pancakes into the correct fractions.

Build a Flower Number Match

Bee Theme Number Matching Game

Halloween Shadow Match Game for Preschoolers

Have you read?

Books About Bugs Through the Seasons

Growing Up Ladybug and How to Become a Butterfly are both by Stepanka Sekaninova and illustrated by Linh Dao, and they came out at the same time and are on similar themes, so let’s look at them together.

Growing Up Ladybug is narrated by Mariella, a seven-spot ladybug. She talks about the parts of a ladybug, where they live, different kinds of ladybugs, why humans love them, their defenses against predators and the life cycle of a ladybug.

The drawings are cute if not always scientifically accurate, it’s not in such a way that’s likely to confuse kids (who probably already know that ladybug mamas don’t push their larval babies around in strollers, for instance.

It’s a good general description of the life cycle of a lady bug and why we like having them around.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

Similarly, How to Become a Butterfly covers the life cycle of a butterfly, starting with caterpillars eating burning nettle leaves. (Here Amanda is the narrator.) The book talks about a few of the more than 18,000 daytime butterflies in the world as well as other creatures that live in the meadow (there’s that ladybug again, along with crickets, bees and other bugs).

It also covers some of the enemies of caterpillars like wasps and spiders, and the defenses that caterpillars use to try to prevent being eaten. It illustrates how caterpillars grow and change as they molt and prepare to pupate, and what a caterpillar looks like before and while it is forming its chrysalis. And while the book uses the word metamorphasis it doesn’t really talk about what happens between the caterpillar forming a chrysalis and the butterfly hatching.

This butterfly is a peacock butterfly, and once it hatches the book covers the parts of a butterfly and the life cycle. It also talks about nocturnal moths (though it says nocturnal butterflies are “usually called moths” when moths are actually a different species) and what butterflies do at night.

I’m maybe a little hard on this book because my daughter is a butterfly expert from way back, but it is still cute and good for the very basic basics of the butterfly life cycle.

Both books would be fun additions to your bookshelf for younger kids starting to learn about different animals or who have an interest in insects.