In the few hellish months when I was a
kindergarten teacher, we used little plastic bears for
counting. About an inch or so high, they were
nauseatingly cute, with
simpering smiles and crossed
paws.
When doing the "if we have five bears, and take away three bears, how many bears do we have left?"
routine, things would get complicated when the four year olds would start to
eat the two remaining ones.