Mathstart Monster Musical Chairs Activity

Monster Musical Chairs is a book in Stuart Murphy's MathStart collection which teaches basic subtraction.  It has a great rhyming rhythm and is a lot of fun  - the girls love shouting "Bye Bye, Monster!" as each monster gets eliminated from the game.  I decided to add to the entertainment by making little pom-pom monsters so we can add a little dramatic play when we read the book.

The monsters were really easy to make using pom-poms, googly-eyes, and craft foam.  I tried to match the monsters to the ones in the book, and they came out really cute.  I also made chairs for them out of little paper cups, a paper towel roll, and more craft foam.

The girls eyes lit up when they woke up from their naps and discovered these little monsters.  As we read the story, we talked about how many monsters and chairs were left.  Then we played a bit of musical chairs as well so they'd understand the concept of the game.

After reading the story a couple times, E asked for her dollhouse furniture and everyone sat down for dinner:

The girls are starting to treat their toys a bit more delicately and I'm proud to say that all six monsters remained intact after a full evening of play.