Counting activities for 2 year olds

20+ Preschool Counting Activities for School and Home

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March 10, 2020 by Sheryl Cooper

Inside: It’s easy to put together preschool counting activities. I’m sharing over 20 math ideas that can easily be done in school or at home!

If you’ve been reading Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds for awhile, you know that I prefer to teach concepts in ways that get young children excited about learning.

When children arrive at our preschool at the start of the year, their counting skills are at varied levels. Some can count easily to 5, 10, 15 or even beyond. Some can even read the numbers. However, many have not developed those skills yet.

Therefore, it’s important to provide activities that can be adapted to their different abilities.

Looking for toddler counting activities? Scroll down towards the bottom of this post to find activities that are perfect for them!

20+ Preschool Counting Activities for School and Home

You might also like this post: Easy Ways to Build Math Skills at Home

Teaching simple counting can be quite easy when you provide activities such as the collection I’m sharing today. Watch your children’s excitement as you invite them to have fun with numbers!

• Count the flowers with your own personal counting book (free printable).
• Add counting mats to your play dough table for simple math fun (free printable).
• Create DIY counting sticks for counting fun.
• Learn how to count while singing 5 Little Speckled Frogs, from Let’s Play Music.
• Create a button mural on your wall, from No Time for Flash Cards.
• Add some color recognition to a counting activity using play dough.

• Download the free printable for a fun frog counting activity.
• Put the puzzle pieces together to make a butterfly (free printable).
• Make your own counting cards to use with simple games.
• Count with seeds, from Teach Preschool.
• Print out these dump truck number  mats for some block counting, from The Measured Mom.
• Count buttons after reading this Pete the Cat book, from Frogs, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails.

• Use foam numbers while counting out food in a recipe.
• Count and measure using Legos, from The Imagination Tree.
• Use different sizes and colors of tubes with pom poms, from Laughing Kids Learn.
• Make number bubbles on a mirror, from Mama, Papa, Bubba.

• Have a “beary” good time counting, from Toddler Approved.
• Count the legs using a number line while making cute ladybugs.
• Use pom poms to count while reading Ten Black Dots, from 3 Dinosaurs.
• Sort and count apples on the light table, from And Next Comes L.
• Make your own indoor hopscotch game with cardboard, from Happy Hooligans.

• Make number learning fun with this parking lot game, featured on B-Inspired Mama.
• Count the seeds in the watermelon, from Playdough to Plato.
• Read one of these counting books, from Buggy and Buddy.
• Go on a counting walk, from Creative Family Fun.
• Make a counting maze with chalk, from Hands On As We Grow.

20+ Simple Sorting Activities

44 Outdoor Learning Activities

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Make sure to check out more ideas on my math pin board!

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Filed Under: Home Activities, Math, preschool, Preschool Math Tagged With: math, preschoolers

About Sheryl Cooper

Sheryl Cooper is the founder of Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds, a website full of activities for toddlers and preschoolers. She has been teaching this age group for over 20 years and loves to share her passion with teachers, parents, grandparents, and anyone with young children in their lives.

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Toddler Counting Activities - My Bored Toddler

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These toddler counting activities are a great way to teach toddlers to count and recognize numbers using counting games and play based activities. 

Counting and number recognition are skills that toddlers will learn through games, activities and play. The more you talk about numbers and point them out in real life, the more inquisitive they will be.

Just like exposure to reading and books is so important, the same applies to numbers. We like to play 'number detectives' and look for numbers when we are out and about. Try to count whenever you get the chance (walking up steps, counting crackers for lunch, counting how many shoes etc).

The key to counting is learning one to one correspondence (pointing to each item and allocating it a number). These counting activities for toddlers are a great introduction, and I'm sure they'll have lots of fun with them! You may like to try these activities in conjunction with our ABC Activities for Toddlers.

Play Based Number & Counting Activities 

These number do-a-dots have been very popular in our house and there are so many ways you can use them. Get the free printable HERE. 

More fun toddler counting ideas to explore at home 

Powerful Mothering - Counting Caterpillar Busy Bag

Toddler Approved - Race to Lose Tooth Counting Game

Stir the Wonder - Count and Smash Play Dough

School Time Snippets - Counting Ice Cream Scoops

Nurture Store Blog - Straw and Pom Poms Counting Game

Glued to My Crafts Blog - Counting Dinosaurs Game

Tutus and Tea Parties - Number Counting Box

School Time Snippets - Counting Raindrops

A Little Pinch of Perfect - Counting Activity with Play Dough

Rainy Day Mum - Frog Counting Game

The Imagination Tree - Count and Sort Posting Box Game

I Heart Crafty Things - Counting Crocodiles

Toddler Approved - Lily Pad Math Hop

Modern Pre-school - Bee Pollen Counting Activity

I Can Teach My Child - Animal Cracker Counting

The Pinterested Parent - If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Counting Game

Where Imagination Grows - Craft Stick Tactile Counting Game

School Time Snippets - Fish Fingerprint Counting Activity

The Elementary Math Maniac - Magnetic Craft Stick Counting Activity

Best Toys 4 Toddlers - Fish Crackers Counting

Kids Activities Blog - Counting Garden

Life Over C's - Sily Monsters Counting to 10

Click Pray Love - Counting with Bowls and Pom Poms

It's Our Long Story - Counting Ducks

If you are looking for some great counting and number resources we have found a few of our favorites from Amazon.

For more fun toddler activity ideas why not join our Facebook Group or follow us on Instagram - follow @myboredtoddler and use #myboredtoddler. 

Some posts you may enjoy are our Indoor Activities for Toddlers 

and The Very Hungry Caterpillar Activities for Toddlers

Teaching preschoolers to count by means of project activities

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Development of ideas about number in preschool children

The idea of ​​numbers, their sequence, relationships, place in the natural series is formed in preschool children under the influence of counting and measurement. In this case, the operations of classification and seriation are of great importance.
In one of his early works, K. Marx wrote that counting is the first theoretical activity of the mind, which still oscillates between sensibility and thinking, the first, free theoretical act of the child's mind.
Learning to count by children is a long and complicated process. The origins of counting activity are seen in the manipulations of young children with objects.
Counting as an activity consists of a number of interrelated components, each of which the child must master: correlating numeral words, called in order, with objects, determining the final number. As a result of this practical activity, a sequence of numbers is mastered.
Object actions of young children (1.5-2.5 years old) are propaedeutics of counting activity. Actively acting, children scatter objects or, conversely, collect them. As a rule, all the same actions are accompanied by the repetition of the same word: “here ..., here ..., here ...”, or “more ..., more ..., more ...”, or “on ..., on ..., on ...”, or by chaotic naming of numbers: “one, one, five ...”. Sometimes each word repeated by the child is associated with one object or with one movement, a correspondence is established between the word and the object. The word helps to single out an element from a multitude of homogeneous objects, movements, to more clearly separate one object from another, and contributes to the rhythmization of actions. At the same time, a one-to-one correspondence between the object, movement and word, not yet realized by the child, is established. This is still a technique used spontaneously by the child, but it serves as a preparation for counting activities in the future. Such actions with sets can be considered as the beginning of the development of counting activities. Children easily learn simple counting rhymes, separate numeral words and use them in the process of movements, games.
The early appearance of numerals in the active vocabulary of children (1.5-2 years old) is not an indicator of the formation of quantitative representations. These words are borrowed from the speech of adults and used by children during the game.
At an early age (2-3 years), children from the chaotic knowledge of numerals, under the influence of training, pass to the assimilation of a sequence of numbers in a limited segment of the natural series. As a rule, these are the numbers 1, 2, 3.
Further ordering of numbers occurs as follows: the segment for memorizing the sequence of numerals increases, children begin to realize that each of the word-numerals always takes its specific place, although they still cannot explain why three always follows two, and six follows five. In this case, speech-auditory-motor connections arise between the called numerals.
In the learned chain of words (one, two, three, etc.), it is absolutely impossible for a child to replace the word one with the word one: the connections formed are destroyed and the child is silent, not knowing, Vito must follow the word one (in some cases, in to please the elders, the child (2.5-3 years old) names the word one as preceding the entire chain he has learned).
There are also such cases when a child perceives the first two or three words-numerals as one word: placing an emphasis on the first syllable one-two-three or one-two. In such cases, he refers this complex of words to one movement or object.
Thus, at an early age, under the influence of active actions with object sets, children develop a speech-auditory-motor image of a natural series of numbers. K- Under the influence of training, they become interested in comparing objects in terms of their size and number. Such behavior mainly characterizes children at the beginning of the third year of life and can be considered as a qualitatively new stage in the development of counting activity.
The tendency to compare manifests itself differently in children. Some impose objects on top of each other, others apply the object to the object. These are the first ways for children to estimate the number, size of objects, and measure them. Comparing objects, children try to establish a relation of equality or inequality (more, less, equally). The need for quantitative assessment by comparison arises as an imitation of the actions of adults in various practical actions with objects.
Following speech-auditory-motor images in children of 3-4 years of age, an auditory image of a natural series of numbers is successfully formed. Numeral words line up and are called in order, but this happens gradually. At the beginning, only a certain set of numerals is ordered, after it the numerals are called, although with intervals, but always in ascending order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, etc.
Having mastered the numerals of the first ten, the children easily move on to the second ten, and then they count like this: “Twenty-ten, twenty-eleven”, etc. But as soon as the child is corrected and called after twenty-nine the number thirty, the stereotype is restored and the child continues: “Thirty one, thirty-two ... thirty-nine, thirty-ten ”, etc. Some children begin to understand that after twenty-nine, thirty-nine, forty-nine there are special words whose names they do not yet know. In such cases, children pause, waiting for the help of an adult.
However, the auditory image of the natural series of numbers formed in children does not yet indicate that they have mastered counting skills.
Under the influence of education, children at the age of 3 master the ability to element by element compare one group of objects with another, practically establishing a one-to-one correspondence between them. At this stage, you should not learn numeral words, but compare sets by establishing a correspondence between its elements:
149 put objects one on top of the other, lay them out one floor with another, or make pairs, taking one object from each group. With such a comparison, children can see the equality or inequality of groups of objects, determining a larger or smaller group, a set of two, they can show extra elements or indicate the place where they are missing, indicating the equivalence of groups, use words and expressions: equally or here as much as there, without naming numbers.
Such actions in the pre-numerical period of learning will help in the future to more accurately understand and assimilate counting, the technique of correlating a number with an object, the sequence of numbers, and the place of a number in the natural series.
In the third year of life, children try to count, showing a very great interest in counting activities. The children's assimilation of a sequence of numbers in the process of counting objects, sounds, and movements constitutes the content of the next stage in the development of their quantitative representations (for 3-4-year-olds).
The account in this period is very monotonous. Children call numeral words: one (meaning one), two, three, another (second), third, etc., while pointing at objects. To the question "How much?" start counting again. This is typical of all children at the initial stage of mastering counting activities. They master the process of counting (naming numbers, assigning them to objects), but the last numeral word called at the same time is not correlated with the entire set. Such an account is “non-resulting” (N. A. Menchinskaya). A common mistake during this period is the inaccuracy of correlating a number with an object. The child calls one numeral word, while pointing to two objects, and vice versa.
At the age of 3-4 years (sometimes even 5 years old), children who have mastered counting cannot answer the question "Which of the numbers goes before the number 4, which after?" They either begin to restore (on their fingers) a series of numbers, or replace the words before and after with the words ahead, behind, and, naming the next number, consider it as standing in front. Many children, naming the next number, cannot name the previous one. When completing the task to find a number greater than one, they mentally or aloud begin to name the numeral words of the entire series, starting with times. Children understand that each next number is greater than the previous one, but they still do not have an exact idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe previous and next number, which makes it impossible for them to immediately name a number that is greater or less than the indicated one.
So, on the basis of the auditory image of the natural series, its spatial image arises.
Further formation of ideas about the number and the natural series of numbers is carried out under the influence of mastering counting activities on the basis of exercises on the equation of sets of objects by number, comparison of sets and numbers.
Mastering the account, children acquire the ability to determine the number of objects as a result of understanding the final value of the number, to compare sets and numbers with the definition of the relationship between them (visually, in a word). Comparison of numbers (on a visual basis) reveals, highlights the quantitative value of the number.
In the process of mastering counting and comparing two groups of objects by quantity, children form an idea of ​​the number as an indicator of the equivalence of sets (red, yellow, white daisies by 3; 4 buckets, 4 scoops, 4 sandboxes - toys for playing with sand by 4) on based on the allocation of general qualitative In quantitative characteristics.
At the same time, the perception and thinking of children are rebuilt. They develop the ability to see the same quantity regardless of external non-essential signs (realization of the principle of conservation of quantity). This is facilitated by exercises that convince children that the same amount can be represented from different objects, differ in the size of the occupied area, and location.
Successful formation of counting activity, especially at the early stages of development, is possible only with the participation of movements, speech, and the interaction of all analyzers.
The motor component (pointing to counting items, circular movement of the hand when summing up) goes through its own path of development: first, the child moves objects, then touches them, then points to objects at a distance, and finally, selects the object only with his eyes, without relying on practical action . This restructuring takes place gradually. In the process of mastering counting, the development of the speech component also occurs: from the loud naming of numeral words in the process of counting, the child proceeds to naming them in a whisper, then only moves his lips and, finally, pronounces them mentally, i.e. in terms of inner speech.
In the process of mastering the count, the speech and motor action follows a common path of development: from an external, expanded action to an internal, folded action. The movement of the eyes and the spoken word perform the function of splitting sets. Gradually, the word and eye movements begin to replace the action of the hand, becoming the main carrier of the counting action.
At the age of 4-5, children learn the sequence and names of numerals, accurately correlate the numeral with each set of objects, regardless of their qualitative features and forms of arrangement, learn the meaning of the last number named when counting as the final one. However, when comparing numbers, they determine the larger of them by its distance from the beginning of the count or as being in front (behind) of any number, which was characteristic of children at a lower level of assimilation of the sequence of numbers.
Mastering counting and comparing numbers (on a visual basis, in different conditions) enables children to highlight the number, compare; totality. The number in their view is gradually abstracted from all non-essential signs.
Children 4-5 years of age and older often have a very limited understanding of the value of the unit. The unit is associated with some individual object. Under the influence of learning, children master the ability to attribute a unit not only to a separate object, but also to a group.

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