Counting & tally stones

Counting & Tally Stones

The Counting and Tally Stones are sensory and educational toys, handmade and 3D-printed in Belgium by Play This Way. This lacing set links finger counting to tallying: your child recognizes a number based on a hand with raised fingers, and then laces the correct number of tally stones onto the string to recreate the number.

Place a finger counting card down and count the raised fingers — from 1 to 5, and up to 10 with both hands together. Then, lace the same number of tally stones onto the string, grouped as in real tallying: four vertical lines with a fifth diagonal line through them. Compare your lacing work with the ready-made tally stones to check if you have counted correctly.

Contents

6 finger counting cards: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 fingers, and 10 fingers (2 hands)
10 tally stones: 8 pieces with 1 line each, 2 pieces with a complete tally group of 5 lines
1 string, for lacing the tally stones

Learning Objectives

Number sense: recognizing finger counting and associating it with a quantity, up to 10
Tallying: learning to apply the principle of tallying (grouping by 5)
Counting: accurately counting and comparing quantities
Fine motor skills: lacing tally stones onto a string
Self-checking: comparing one's own lacing work with the ready-made tally stone of 5

Dimensions

Finger counting cards: vary, approx. 3.2 x 6.7 x 1.1 cm to 5.5 x 6.7 x 1.1 cm
Loose tally stones: approx. 2.5 x 4.75 x 1.2 cm
Tally stones with group of 5: Ø 4.75 cm, height 1.2 cm

Handmade and 3D-printed with care, in our own workshop in Belgium.

Where play leads the way.