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Counting activities for kindergarten


19 Free Counting Activities For Kindergarten

Home » 19 Free Counting Activities For Kindergarten

Need some FREE counting activities for kindergarten? Click through to see our awesome collection of easy prep kindergarten number activities. Learning has never been so fun!

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Counting and number recognition are important concepts for young learners. While it seems like a simple skill, the process involves a number of important skills and concepts. Think about it. When our  Kinders learn to count they must

  • Learn the standard order of numbers and how our numbering system works
  • Recognize that when you count you are pairing an object with one number name.
  • Grasp the concept of quantity
  • Understand that when you count a set, the last number name tells you the number of objects counted.
  • Discover that with every consecutive number the quantity increases by one.
  • Learn how to read numbers and numerals.
  • Understanding what those numbers or numerals symbolize.

Not as simple as it seems right? Fortunately, most kindergarten students will learn all these things without too much trouble. All they need is lots of practice and plenty of hands-on activities.

There are loads of fun ways to help kinders practice their counting. Try to find different activities to keep things fresh and appeal to different learning styles.

Since learning to count is such an important math skill we’ve gathered 19 counting activities for kindergarten students. Are you ready to help your kids practice their counting skills?

19 Counting Activities For Kindergarten

Counting Games

starry count and cover mats

We all know that children learn best when they are playing. A math center is a place where learning and playing go hand in hand.

  1. Everyone loves cute cuddly bears! These adorable bear cards are a fun way to practice counting to 10!
  2. These FREE starry count and cover mats are an engaging counting activity for Kindergarten. They are perfect for math centers, early finishers, or homeschoolers
  3. Ten Turkey’s Counting Game is based on the children’s popular book and is a lot of fun.
  4. I love these fun Halloween counting mats
  5. Games That Incorporate Counting and Addition
  6. Our cute firefly game helps Kindergarten students practice adding on 1 and 2. First, they have to count and then add on. This is a great way to start teaching Kinders simple addition strategies as they begin building math fluency.
  7. Here is a fun math game that involves counting. The goal is to practice making ten, but you have to count along the way!

Count and Clip Cards

Back to School Count and Clip Cards

Count and clip cards are always a hit and they are easy to set up. Try

  1. St Patrick’s Day Count and Clip
  2. Spring
  3. Back to School
  4. Pumpkin Pie

Counting Worksheets

Worksheets are a staple in kindergarten. Easy to prepare and perfect for practicing all kinds of skills. Try these

  1. These back to school counting worksheets are perfect for beginners. They will help your students with counting and identifying numbers.
  2. I spy Numbers is a fun choice for math time or anytime when you need a quiet activity. Students have to count the numbers, but of course, it also helps practice number recognition.
  3. Grab this FREE Cut and Paste Counting and Number Recognition Activity for an easy counting lesson.

Counting to 100

100 Pumpkin Seeds
  1. Check out our free printable “Race to 100” math game. This post also includes counting activities and games that will practice double-digit number recognition.
  2. Here is an activity that uses pumpkin seeds to count to 100
  3. Make counting to 100 fun by using some of the free counting videos on YouTube. Here is a list of our teacher approved favorites

Skip counting

skip counting

When your students have mastered counting by ones, you can move on to skip counting

  1. Here is a DIY game that is easy to prepare and helps kids practice skip counting by 5’s.
  2. This free printable features balloons and also practices skip counting by 5’s.

Your Turn

So you’ve seen all our favorite counting activities for Kindergarten. What have we missed? What are your favorite counting games?  

At Simply Kinder we work together to bring you ready-to-use resources to partner with great teaching for any curriculum, a Facebook community where teachers talk all things Kindergarten, and low-prep learning ideas that your students will love. Be sure to stay up to date with all things kindergarten on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and through email. Simply Kinder: where teaching Kinder is definitely better together!

Hands-On Counting Activities for Kindergarten

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Kindergarten teachers know that learning how to count is more than just reciting numbers in order.  Students need to understand the meaning behind the numbers they are saying!  This helps our young learners build a foundation for future math skills such as addition and subtraction.   My favorite way to help students practice one-to-one correspondence is with hands-on counting activities.  Keep reading for ten of my favorites!

10 Hands-On Counting Activities for Kindergarten

1. Ten Frame

One of the best ways to help students with one-to-one correspondence is to use a ten frame.  This helps students keep track of the items as they count as they put one item in each box of the frame.  (My students love using mini erasers and stickers!)  Plus, introducing students to ten frames will help them prepare for future math concepts and investigations. 

2. Play Dough

I love to use play dough during math lessons because it’s a great way to incorporate some engaging fine motor practice. To use play dough as a hands-on counting activity, you can have students pinch and roll small balls and place them in a row or on a ten frame (I like to use these play dough mats). Students can then squash each ball of play dough as they count them.  This is a fun way to help students practice accurate counting and one-to-one correspondence!

3.

Bingo Daubers

Bingo daubers are always a hit in the kindergarten classroom, so they’re a great option for counting practice!  Students can use daubers to represent a particular number on a piece of paper. For example, they will create eight dots on their paper for the number eight.  My personal favorite, though, are count and dab activities!  Students count a number of objects and then dab the correct answer on the worksheet.  Count and dab activities are perfect for math centers!

4. Number Lines

 It’s important for our young learners to get familiar with number lines for future math skills, so I always like to use number lines as a hands-on activity.  Counting on a number line is another helpful way for students to visualize the quantities of a given number.  Students can practice showing the number of “jumps” it takes to get to each number. 

5. Task Cards

There are countless ways that you can use task cards to help students practice one-to-one correspondence and counting.   These simple, hands-on activities can be incorporated into the classroom at various points of the school day, such as centers, small group instruction, interventions, or even morning work! You can also use them to incorporate counting into other areas of the math curriculum, such as counting the vertices and sides of 2D shapes! If you’d like to read more about how I use math task cards in the classroom, check out this post.

6. Counting Games

A fun way to practice counting and one-to-one correspondence is with board games! Students are able to practice navigating the board as they count the correct number of spaces.  However, you can also turn task cards into fun and engaging counting games!  For example, this monster counting freebie can be used as a counting game if you turn the task cards face-down on the table and have students take turns selecting a monster.  After choosing a card, they place the correct number of googly eyes on their monster as they count. Something as simple as having students choose their task cards from a face-down pile can bring a lot of engagement to math practice!

7.

Count and Reveal

In addition to task cards, count and reveal activities are another hands-on math center idea.  This self-correcting activity is perfect for students to practice one-to-one correspondence and counting.  After counting the number of objects shown on the cards, students say the number and then lift the flap to see if they are correct.  The addition of the clothes pins to this activity means that students are strengthening their fine motor skills, as well!

8. Roll and Cover

Roll and cover activities are a fun way for students to practice counting.  After rolling dice, students can count the number of dots on the dice and then cover the corresponding number on their roll and cover mats.  The game continues until they have covered each number.  This is a very effective way to fit in a lot of counting repetition because students love to play this game over and over!

9. Printable Number Books

One of the best reasons to use printable books in kindergarten is that students love to share their creations with friends and family.   Encouraging our students to talk about what they work on in school is a great way to solidify what they’ve been learning. After practicing the number concepts as they create these little number books, students will often talk about these same concepts when they take the books home to family.  This is a great way to encourage students to continue to count and talk about numbers!

10. Morning Work Tubs

If you use morning work tubs in your classroom, be sure to add hands-on counting activities to your morning routine!  Students will be able to get more practice with one-to-one correspondence as they ease into a day of learning.  Counting tasks are perfect for morning work because students are usually able to complete these tasks independently. Check out this post for my favorite math ideas for morning work tubs!

Number Practice for Kindergarten

To save you some time and money, I have created a bundle of numbers centers and numbers printables that will help you add variety to your counting practice!  This bundle is full of hands-on fine motor activities, low-prep printables, no-prep worksheets, and even technology. You can find this bundle in my shop if you’d like to see everything that’s included!

Save These Hands-On Counting Activities

Short on time?  Be sure to save this post to your favorite math board on Pinterest.  You’ll be able to refer back to this post any time you’re looking for some fun counting activities for kindergarten!

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Magic counting sticks |

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George Cuizener (1891 — 1976) — Belgian teacher, author of a unique technique. During his many years as an elementary school teacher, George Cuizener did a lot to help his students in their studies. One of his inventions was a set of colored wooden sticks (the method was based on the technique of Friedrich Fröbel, a German teacher of the century before last). Kuizener used them in teaching arithmetic and found that the method was very effective. He received a consistently high learning outcome, and the students liked what they were doing. This technique is universal. The use of the Kuizener method does not contradict any other methods, and therefore it can be used both separately and in combination with other methods, complementing them. Although Kuizener's sticks are intended directly for teaching mathematics and explaining mathematical concepts, they have an additional positive effect on the child: they develop fine motor skills of fingers, spatial and visual perception, and teach them to order. Kuizener's sticks are simple and understandable; kids perceive working with them as a game. nine0009

Kuizener's experience was reflected in the book "Numbers and Colors" (1952), a set of colored counting sticks made by analogy with the Hungarian version of the textbook known as "Kuizener". From a mathematical point of view, a stick is a set on which equivalence and order relations are easily found. Numerous mathematical situations are hidden in this set. Color and size, modeling a number, lead children to an understanding of various abstract concepts that naturally arise in a child's thinking as a result of his independent practical activity and sensory experience. The use of "numbers in color" allows you to simultaneously develop in children the idea of ​​​​a number based on counting and measurement. To the conclusion that the number appears as a result of counting and measuring, children come on the basis of practical activities, as a result of a variety of exercises. As you know, it is this representation of the number that is the most complete. nine0009

The set contains prism sticks in 10 different colors and lengths from 1 to 10 cm. Sticks of the same length are made in one color and represent a specific number. The longer the stick, the greater the value of the number it expresses. Sets of "numbers in color" produced by manufacturers differ in quantity, color scheme and material (wood or plastic). For starters, you can use the most simplified set - from 116 sticks. It contains 25 white sticks, 20 pink, 16 blue, 12 red, 10 yellow, 9purple, 8 black, 7 burgundy, 5 blue and 4 orange. The Kuizener stick is mainly aimed at children from 1 to 7 years old.

Game tasks of colored sticks:

Colored sticks are a multifunctional mathematical tool that allows "through the hands" of a child to form the concept of a numerical sequence, composition of a number, relations "more - less", "right - left", "between", "longer ", "above". Children master such concepts as: “each”, “one of ...”, “some”, “be of the same color”, “be not blue”, “have the same length”, etc.

The choice of color is intended to make the kit easier to use. Sticks 2,4,8 form a "red family", 3,6,9 - a "blue family". The “yellow family” is 5 and 10. The selection of sticks in one family (class) does not occur by chance, but is associated with a certain ratio of their size. For example, the red family includes numbers that are multiples of two, the blue family includes numbers that are multiples of three, and so on. In each of the sets, the rule applies: the longer the stick, the greater the value of the number that it expresses. The set contributes to the development of children's creativity, the development of fantasy and imagination, cognitive activity, fine motor skills, visual-effective thinking, attention, spatial orientation, perception, combinatorial and design abilities. nine0009

It can be noted that "Kuizener's Counting Sticks" as a didactic tool fully correspond to the specifics and features of elementary mathematical representations formed in preschoolers, as well as their age capabilities, the level of development of children's thinking, mainly visual-effective and visual-figurative. Working with sticks allows you to translate practical, external actions into an internal plan, create a complete, distinct and at the same time quite generalized idea of ​​the concept. The main features of this didactic material are abstractness, versatility, and high efficiency. Sticks now easily fit into the system of pre-mathematical preparation of children for school, as one of the modern teaching technologies. From a mathematical point of view, Kuizener's sticks are a set on which equivalence and order relations are easily found. nine0009

It is important that “color numbers” make it possible to construct the model of the studied mathematical concept and solve the following tasks: