Easy maths for preschoolers

Preschool Math Games and Activities to Engage Young Learners

Preschoolers have lots of important math skills to learn before they start kindergarten. Counting, number sense, sorting, patterns, comparing size, and so much more—these are all concepts toddlers need so they can move on to more advanced math concepts. These preschool math games and activities help kids master those skills in ways that are just as fun as playtime!

1. String beads on pipe cleaners

This is one of those classic preschool math games that has so many benefits for young learners. They get fine motor control practice along with learning to count, recognize numerals, and put numbers in order. All you need are pipe cleaners and beads.

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Learn more: Laughing Kids Learn

2. Monster Dice Match

Rolling dice gives kids a chance to practice counting and subitizing. Get the printable for this free matching game at the link.

Learn more: The Measured Mom—Monster Dice

3. Build and count

You’ll find lots of dice-related preschool math games out there. In this one, kids roll the dice and then stack blocks together. They finish by counting the blocks all together, an early intro to addition.

Learn more: Hands On as We Grow

4. Flip Uno cards to make a match

Get some memory practice while you learn numerals. Uno cards, with their bright and cheery colors and large numbers, are perfect for this, but regular playing cards work too.

Learn more: Primary Playground

5. Tag the number

We love that this game gives kids a chance to move! Tape up numbers on the wall (or write them on a whiteboard). Then have kids roll a die and run to tag the number that comes up. You can play this game in other ways too, like calling out the numbers randomly yourself, or taping the numbers in a variety of places around the room.

Learn more: This Reading Mama

6.

Stack building blocks and build a city skyline. You’ll get a different result every time, making this one of those preschool math games kids can play again and again.

Learn more: Cinta + Co.

7. Race to fill the cup

So simple and so fun! Grab a bin of math cubes or small toys and some plastic cups. Kids roll a polyhedral die (you can also try flipping playing cards or Uno cards) and place that many items in their cup. The first to completely fill their cup wins!

Learn more: Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls—Fill the Cup

8. Hunt for numbers

Combine a sensory experience with some number practice. Fill a bin with sand, then bury playing cards for kids to find and match up.

Learn more: Busy Toddler/Number Hunt

9. Bounce a balloon

Everyone loves playing with balloons! Roll a die, then see if you can bounce a balloon into the air that many times without letting it hit the ground.

Learn more: Confidence Meets Parenting

10.

This is just like the original Cootie game, but no need to buy anything! Just cut beetle pieces from construction paper, then roll a die and see if you can be the first to assemble your bug!

Learn more: Teach Beside Me

11. Create shapes with sticks

Toddlers need to master their shapes, and this is a clever way to do it. Put together sets of wood craft sticks (use the same color for each shape) and let little fingers turn them into triangles, squares, and other shapes.

Learn more: Team Cartwright

12. Send bears into hibernation caves

Make “caves” from plastic bowls, then send little toy bears into “hibernation” in each one! Learn how the game works at the link.

Learn more: Pocket of Preschool

13. Park numbered cars

Vroom vroom! Number your toy cars to match the slots in a cardboard parking lot. Kids will have fun zooming them into the right places.

Learn more: B-Inspired Mama

14.

Dominoes are fantastic math learning tools. This game is a sneaky introduction to addition, as kids count up the total number of dots on each domino and put them in the proper place.

Learn more: Busy Toddler—Domino Line-Up

15. Copy ice tray patterns

Seeing and matching patterns is a key skill for preschoolers. Placing pom-poms into ice cube trays with plastic tweezers helps them work on fine motor skills too.

Learn more: Planning Playtime

16. Rubber Duck Math Race

In this game, kids race to see who can be the first to get their rubber duckies to 10 (or any number you choose). They roll a die and lay out tiles to move their duck. The twist? To get to 10 at the end, they must roll the exact number they need—no going over! Preschool math games like this help kids master counting to 10 and counting on.

Learn more: Happy Toddler Playtime—Rubber Duck Race

17. Feed the LEGO monster

Sort LEGO bricks by color, shape, or number of dots. Then compare the number that wind up in each bag to learn the concept of “more or less.”

Learn more: Toddler Approved

18. Drop blocks into tubes

Upcycle some empty cardboard tubes by labeling them with numbers. Then drop small items like blocks or caps into the tubes to match the numbers.

Learn more: Happy Toddler Playtime—Tube Counting

19. Compare numbers to music

Prep for this game by using dot markers on paper plates as shown (visit the link below for more examples). Each kid takes a plate and uses it to “drive” around the room as you play music. When the music stops, they find a nearby partner and compare what they see on each other’s plates (e.g., “8 dots is more than 4 dots. 1 green dot is less than 4 green dots.”). Then start the music up and repeat!

20. Hold a shape scavenger hunt

Preschool math students are learning to recognize shapes in their environment and also to categorize and sort. This scavenger hunt does it all! Send them out to find objects in the room that match the shapes. Then count and compare to see how many you have in each category.

Learn more: Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls—Shape Scavenger Hunt

If you loved these preschool math games, be sure to check out 20 Simple and Fun Preschool Science Experiments and Activities.

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Easy Math Activities for Preschoolers

It does not need to be on a worksheet.

It does not need to involve flash cards.

Math activities for preschoolers can (strike that) MUST be hands-on and engaging. This round up is full of 10+ preschool math activities that go way outside the workbook or computer screen.

When we think of preschoolers and math, the natural space to head to is memorizing number names and counting.

But math is so much more than reciting words in order or identifying the name of a symbol (which is literally all the route counting and naming numbers is) and cannot reduce it to something so trivial in the preschool years.

Especially not when these kids and their math skills are worth so much more.

Check out Playing Preschool: Busy Toddler’s 190-day at-home activities program

LEARN MORE

I grabbed together 10+ activities that are perfect to illustrate this “point” that we can’t / mustn’t relegate preschool math to memorizing numbers.

Kids need the opportunity to:

• Build conceptual understanding of math principles (this is the “why” in math. For example, in grade school, many of us were taught to “carry the 1.” We were never taught what the 1 is or why we are “carrying” it. We missed the conceptual lessons and were taught to memorize a process. We want more for our kids that following rules in math – we want them to actually understand it.)

• Grow their own thinking and problem solving skills (instead of kids looking to us for the answer or finding it in the back of the book, let’s celebrate their thinking skills in math which are 100x more important than their “found the right answer” skills)

Let’s move away from the idea that math is about finding the perfect answer into math is about the process, the concepts, the critical thinking, the problem solving, and sure – eventually the “right” answer, but that cannot be the sole focus.

When the “right answer” is all kids are after, it has an incredible opposite effect to what we are after: they believe right is the only goal, that process doesn’t matter, and that thinking and problem solving aren’t valued.

We want kids who look for the answer, look for ways to solve problems, and look beyond basic memorizing.

Each activity is linked and I also give a brief explanation so you know the basic idea before you click.

Let kids spend time with, explore, investigate, and sort coins. Make sure to keep a close eye and excellent supervision with this activity.

This activity is part probability & statistics and part fine motor skills. Kids roll a dice and keep track of how many times each number is rolled.

Have an older child? Try two dice and track numbers 2 to 12.

Addition. Subitizing. Graphing. Printed numbers. Understanding numbers can be composed by different combinations (5 and 1, 3 and 3, 4 and 2). What doesn’t this activity have?!

Ten-frames are the conceptually bell of the math ball in the current era of math education AND FOR GOOD REASON. Your child will spend a lot of time with ten-frames in early elementary school, but we can use them in preschool too.

Check out this post for what a ten-frame is and how to use one.

This is a FUN math game. Create a large dice (or use a small one). Kids toss the dice and race to cross out the numbers as fast as they can.

For more challenge, use two dice and numbers 2-12. For even more challenge, make the game a head to head competition. It’s shockingly fun.

Paint shapes within shapes within shapes. Why not give kids a fun way to interact with these two-dimensional beauties?

100 doesn’t make a lot of sense to kids: it’s abstract. This activity makes it concrete but also manageable.

Board games are FILLED with math, but what if your child got to make their own game?! This activity is GOLD.

Recognizing flat shapes on paper is one thing. Recognizing those same shapes in our environment is another. This activity goes way beyond basic memorizing of shape names.

Now I know we said we were going beyond memorizing numbers, but this activity does: this is the conceptual base for understanding addition as the combination of two groups. Instead of just saying 5 + 4 = 9, this activity shows the whole process.

In this activity, kids begin to see how 3-dimensional shapes have 2-dimensional faces. This is HUGE. Not only that, these faces repeat (a square is a face on cubes, rectangular prisms, and triangular prisms).

When we talk about introducing preschoolers to math beyond memorizing numbers and counting, this is the kind of activity that exemplifies that.

Don’t limit preschoolers to math flashcards or counting activities. They can do so much more, learn so much more, become enriched with so much more math.

What’s your favorite math activities for preschoolers? Comment below!

Susie Allison, M. Ed

Owner, Creator

Susie Allison is the creator of Busy Toddler and has more than 1.9 million followers on Instagram. A former teacher and early childhood education advocate, Susie’s parenting book “Busy Toddler’s Guide to Actual Parenting” is available on Amazon.

Math for children 4, 5, 6, 7 years old

Here you can find a lot of useful materials on the topic "Math for children for children 4, 5, 6, 7 years old", which you can print on a printer and engage with children as at home, and in preschool and school institutions. Learning math in a playful way is a very interesting activity even for those children who do not show much love for learning. Also, such tasks are great for little fidgets who cannot sit in one place for 5 minutes. Each game task is designed for a younger child - it is designed in such a way that the child does not get tired, and at the same time receives a useful portion of knowledge and skills. The main thing is not to solve all the tasks at once, only one at a time!

Mathematics for children 4, 5, 6, 7 years old - choose a section for learning

Mathematics for children is presented here in several sections, each of which develops certain skills in teaching a child. For example, counting up to 10 and 20 is intended for children who are learning to count objects, but still do not know numbers well and do not know how to solve mathematical expressions. In the section with tasks in mathematics, more complex tasks are presented, in which examples, tasks, and various tasks for adding, subtracting, dividing the number of objects into equal parts, etc. can be found. In tasks with geometric shapes, children will get acquainted with the shapes and names of geometric shapes, perform simple tasks to consolidate the learned material. Also, tasks with mathematical signs (greater than, less than, equals sign) are given separately.

Learning to Count to 10 - Fun Picture Activities

In this section we are learning to count to 10 with fun picture activities for preschoolers. Learning to count in a playful way is a very interesting activity even for those children who do not show much love for learning.

Learn to count to 20 - Picture game tasks

Here we learn to count to 20 by doing interesting picture game tasks. The activities below are suitable for children who have already mastered counting up to 10 and are starting to learn counting within 20.

Fun math pictorial tasks for kids

Here are some fun and colorful math pictorial tasks for kids who are getting ready for school or are in 1st grade. Assignments can be very useful for teachers in kindergartens and elementary schools to teach children about mathematical expressions more effectively.

Geometric shapes for children - Interesting tasks

Here you can download and print geometric shapes for children in the form of interesting tasks in pictures, the implementation of which will not only benefit the child, but also a lot of fun.

Numbers for kids - Download, print and cut!

Numbers for children in various designs are presented here - numbers in the form of flowers, three-dimensional, gold, with various textures, ice, puzzle numbers, as well as simple numbers in black and red.

Mathematical signs and symbols - Picture tasks

Learning math signs and symbols with interesting picture tasks. By completing tasks, the child will learn to distinguish between greater than and less than signs, as well as plus, minus and equal signs.

Other interesting topics with mathematics

Educational games "Mathematics for Toddlers"

Games developed by the Chudo-Yudo children's portal especially for the youngest children (from 2 years old), who are just starting to learn to count to 10. Such games contribute to faster memorization of numbers, and also allow the child to understand the technology of counting, which is difficult for his age.

Math games for children from 4 to 6 years old

Games are designed to prepare a preschooler for the first mathematical knowledge and numeracy. Here you will find interesting colorful games in which the child will need to find and count the specified number of objects or living beings. Children of this age really like to count, especially in a playful way.

Math examples online

A great opportunity for younger students to practice their knowledge of mathematics. After all, in these tasks you need to be able to quickly solve examples, because a certain time is allocated for the passage of each task. When the time runs out, then you are credited with points only for those examples to which the child managed to answer.

All educational materials presented in the section "Mathematics for children 4, 5, 6, 7 years old" are very useful for preschoolers to prepare for school, as well as for younger students to practice and test their knowledge.

Entertaining mathematics for preschoolers - ABC of education

• How to introduce a child to logic?
• How to remember the graphic representation of numbers?
• Preschool Math and Counting
• Preschool Math and Counting
• Play Activities for Toddlers 5 to 5 (2 years 6 months)
• Household Counting (1 year 6 months)
• Cards ( 1 year 6 months)
• Learning zero (2 years)
• Counting using poetry (1 year 6 months)
• Math for kids in the game
• Bears go for a walk
• Find a house for each bear
• Looking for a toy
• Count, make no mistake!
• Find a toy
• Get to know the numbers
• Guessing game
• Who has more
• Logic tasks for preschoolers
• Learn to tell the time by the clock
• Mosaic of buttons - an educational game for children
• Why buttons?
• Under no circumstances should you count, just name four.

How to teach a child to count and love mathematics? What can be done to facilitate the process of learning the world of mathematics? It's not as difficult as it might seem. It is only necessary to methodically deal with this and create all the conditions for the baby.

Before you get started with your baby, here are a few tips:

• A small child cannot maintain the same position for a long time, perform the same action. Therefore, there is no need to get angry if your baby is distracted, slides from a chair to the floor, or suddenly asks a question completely “from a different opera”.
• If you use some kind of visual material in your classes - cards, pictures, toys, then introduce the child to all this in advance. This is done so that during the lesson the baby is not distracted from studying by looking at new things for him.
• Most likely you will work with your baby on some book. Do not try to “pass” it quickly and be sure to return to the past from time to time. The memory of babies is still very unstable.
• Young children are much better at assimilating emotionally perceived material. Therefore, use more games, counting rhymes and rhymes.
• For classes you will need counting material. As such, you can use large buttons, toys from Kindersurprise, parts from Lego. You will also need picture cards. You can use stickers for this.

How to introduce a child to logic?

You have a child, and you are beside yourself with surging happiness only from the realization that you have now become a happy mother and, finally, there will be someone to pass on your maternal love and knowledge. Not without reason, from time immemorial, all the leading philosophers have emphasized in every possible way that when parents want to raise their child in the image and likeness, hard or soft, they voluntarily or involuntarily want their baby to look like themselves. This process is called education.

Leading psychologists unanimously assure us that the kindness and breadth of your child's soul, voluntarily or involuntarily, should help in achieving his goals. Indeed, it is easier to be kind than smart. It is not for nothing that people say that a kind person helps everyone, while a smart one helps only those in need. And if you want to see your child not only kind, but also smart, then you need to start the whole process of education from infancy. But where do you start?

Start small. From logic. In order for your child to believe in the existence of cause and effect, you must always and must fulfill your parental promises (for example, “if you behave, then we will definitely go to the zoo.”)

If your child is already seriously interested in children's books, then it will be useful to add verbal logic puzzles and tasks with answers, such as: “If this is so, then this is because ...” or “What will happen if I do everything the other way around?” “How can all this be explained?” The development of logic is helped by simple children's riddles, puzzles, rebuses. Make it a rule to have a mystery night at least once a week. Teach your child to make puzzles.

Your child is entering a stage when everything becomes extremely interesting for him and his curiosity can and should be played on so that he can quickly learn and, most importantly, understand the world around him. And simple worldly logic will only be to his advantage.

To make it easier for your child to understand and understand all this, it will be useful to include in role-playing games some elements of ready-made conclusions, such as: “Your dolls go to bed in the evening because they get tired during the day. But my Volodya is also tired, and it’s time for him to go to bed too.”

You can also show such an example from the world of “Moidodyr” that if “the children do not wash and comb their hair, then the rest of the children in the kindergarten will not play with him.” Already in the process of growing up your child will be able to give much deeper concepts with logical overtones. Here you need to apply the main and basic principle - so that your child already begins to clearly understand that in this world there is always both a cause and an effect.

How to remember the graphic representation of numbers?

Very often it happens that the baby can count perfectly from 1 to 10, but he cannot find the number shown in the picture on his own. The graphic image of a figure for him is a complex abstract concept. The development of abstract thinking is not a simple process, as child psychologists believe. And without the help of adults, this is not enough.

Very often babies confuse numbers that are a little similar to each other, for example 6 and 9, 8 and 3, 4 and 7. And this problem should by no means be overlooked. The baby needs help to understand such complex, for his perception, graphic images. It will be much easier for a kid to remember a number if he can find its similarity with some object or animal: 2-swan, 8-points.

If mom can pick up interesting poems about numbers, then the memorization process will be even easier. How to help kids? The main thing is not to get angry with children if they do not grasp everything “on the fly”. This is for you, adults, everything is easy and simple, but for children who have just begun to master numbers and counting, everything is very difficult. Any teacher or child psychologist in Moscow will confirm that the most effective way for children to memorize new material is to play math classes.

Find the number math game
For this game you will need:

drawn (printed) numbers on paper from 1 to 9
drawings similar to numbers, objects.

The kid looks at the drawing and then guesses what number is hidden in it. Then the mother shows the number 2 and asks the baby to find a picture similar to this number.

“What does the number look like”
Mom asks the child what number the glasses look like, and the baby should show the number 8.

Math game “Guess what number”?
Mom reads a poem, the child must name the number that was discussed in the poem, and then find it and show it.

Barely glides on the water,
Like a swan, number two.
Arched her neck,
Drives the waves behind her.

***

Four mice on the mountain
Mixed up all the skis,
And hedgehogs, four brothers,
Helped them figure it out!

***

What a cherry, my friend,
Is the stalk bent up?
You try to eat it,
This cherry is a number ...

Mathematical game “Cardboard Numbers”
For this game, you will need to cut out numbers from cardboard in advance. The kid closes his eyes, takes one cardboard number and guesses by touch what kind of number it is.

Lost Numbers Math Game
Numbers from 1 to 9 are printed on cardboard. Then each of them is cut into two parts. The kid must restore them. If this task is too easy for him, he can complicate it by cutting the numbers into 3, 4 or 6 parts.

“What's on the back”
The baby lies on his stomach, and his mother draws a number on his back with her finger. The baby must guess what this number is.

Preschool Math & Counting

Preschool & Toddler Math Fun
Math for young children is a difficult subject that can be difficult to learn at school. In addition, not all children have a mathematical mindset, and not everyone has a natural craving for the exact sciences.

Therefore, developing a preschooler's interest in mathematics at an early age will greatly facilitate his schooling. After all, the modern school curriculum is quite rich and far from simple even for first-graders.

Mastering counting skills and the basics of mathematics at home in a playful and entertaining way for a preschooler will help him in the future to quickly and easily learn the complex issues of the school course.

Entertaining tasks

How many ears do three mice have?
How many paws do two cubs have?
Seven brothers have one sister. How many sisters are there?
Dasha's grandmother has a granddaughter Masha, a cat Fluff and a dog Druzhok. How many grandchildren does a grandmother have?
Birds were flying over the river: dove, pike, 2 tits, 2 swifts and 5 eels. How many birds? Answer soon!
Burned 7 candles. 2 candles extinguished. How many candles are left? (2. the rest burned down)
There are three apples in the basket. How to divide them among three children so that one apple remains in the basket? (give one apple along with the basket).
There are three thick branches on a birch, each thick branch has three thin branches. On each thin branch, one apple. How many apples are there? (Not at all - apples do not grow on a birch.)

Tasks in verse

Apples fell from a branch to the ground.
Wept, wept, tears shed
Tanya collected them in a basket.
I brought as a gift to my friends
Two Earrings, three Antoshka,
Katerina and Marina,
Olya, Sveta and Oksana,
The biggest one - to my mother.
Speak quickly,
How many Tanya's friends?

A star fell from the sky,
She ran to visit the children.
Two shout after her:
"Don't forget your friends!"
How many bright stars have disappeared,
Have fallen from the starry sky?

The holiday is coming soon. New Year,
Let's get up in a friendly round dance.
Let's sing a song loudly,
Congratulations to everyone on this day.
Let's prepare gifts for everyone,
This holiday is very bright.
Katya, Masha and Alenka0147 Andryusha and Vityusha -
By car and pear.
Sasha will be happy with Petrushka
And a big colored cracker.
Well, Tanya - Tanya -
Brown bear in a gray plush.
You, friends, count the guests
Call their names.

An old woman decided to bake cheesecakes.
I put the dough in and fired up the oven.
The old woman decided to bake cheesecakes,
And she completely forgot how many they needed.
Two things for granddaughter,
Two things for grandfather,
Two things for Tanya,
Neighbor's daughters. ..
I counted, counted, but lost my way,
But the stove was completely heated!
Help the old lady count the cheesecakes.

In the fish kingdom to the sturgeon
They come in the morning
Three young pike,
To clean his cheeks,
And four chebak
Wash their belly and sides.
Count, kids,
How many servants does a sturgeon have?
V. Kudryavtseva

Once upon a time
at the waistcoat
Three loops
and two cuffs.
If you count them together
Three and two, of course, five!
Just know,
what is the secret?
The vest has no cuffs!
G. Novitskaya

Six nuts mother-pig
Carried for children in a basket.
Hedgehog met a pig
And gave four more.
How many nuts did pig
bring to the children in the basket?

Three hares, five hedgehogs
They go to kindergarten together.
We will ask you to count,
How many kids are in the garden?
Five pies lay in a bowl.
Two pies were taken by Lariska,
Another one was stolen by a pussy.
How much is left in the bowl?
Our cat has five kittens,
They sit side by side in a basket.
And the neighbor's cat has three!
So cute, look!
Help me count,
How much is three and five?
Seven geese set off.
The two decide to take a break.
How many of them are under the clouds?
Count yourself, children.
The apples in the garden are ripe,
We managed to taste them
Five ruddy, bulk,
Two with sourness.
How many are there?

A rooster flew up on the fence,
I met two more people there.
How many roosters have become?

Three chickens are standing
They are looking at the shells.
Two testicles in the nest
Lying at the mother hen.
Count the turns,
Answer quickly:
How many chickens will my mother hen have
?

Six funny cubs
They rush to the forest for raspberries
But one of them is tired,
Now find the answer:
How many bears are ahead?

Arranged by Andryushka
Two rows of toys.
Next to the monkey -
Teddy bear.
Together with the fox -
Bunny oblique.
Following them -
Hedgehog and frog.
How many toys
did Andryushka arrange?

Granny fox gives
Mittens to three grandchildren:
“This is for you, grandchildren,
mittens, two each.
Take care, don't lose,
How many, count!”

A seagull warmed up the kettle,
Invited nine seagulls,
“Come all for tea!”
How many seagulls, answer!

Squirrel dried mushrooms on the Christmas tree,
She sang a song and said:
“I don’t know troubles in winter,
Because there is a fungus:
White, ginger, two oil cans,
Three cheerful honey mushrooms.
The boletus is large,
This is what he is famous for <
And there are exactly six chanterelles.
Try to count them all!”

Mom and I were at the zoo,
We fed the animals from our hands all day.
Camel, zebra, kangaroo
And long-tailed fox.
Big gray elephant
I could hardly see.
Tell me soon, friends,
What animals have I seen?
And if you could count them,
You are simply a miracle! Well done!

Rain, pour more fun!
Do not be sorry for warm drops!
Five Seryozhka, three Antoshka,
Two Valyusha and Katyusha.
And for mom and dad
Forty will not be enough.
Well, you friends count,
How many drops answer!

Along the path along the bushes
There were eleven tails.
I was also able to count,
That walked thirty feet.
It was going somewhere together
Roosters and pigs.
And now the question is this:
How many roosters were there?
And I would be glad to know
How many pigs were there?
Did you manage to find the answer?
Goodbye, hello everyone!
N.Razgovorov
Along the ravine
There was a cap,
Two kerchiefs,
Three baskets,
And stubbornly followed them
Snow-white Panama.
How many children were there in total?
Answer quickly!

One evening to the bear
Neighbors came to the cake:
Hedgehog, badger, raccoon, “oblique”,
A wolf with a cheating fox.
But the bear couldn't
Divide the pie.
The bear sweated from labor -
He didn't know how to count!
Help him quickly -
Count all the animals.
B. Zakhoder

Seven merry little pigs
Standing in a row at the trough.
Two went to bed to go to bed,
How many pigs have a trough?

Four goslings and two ducklings
Swimming in the lake, shouting loudly.
Well, count quickly -
How many babies are there in the water?

Good hedgehog at the market
Bought boots for the family.
Boots on the leg - for myself,
A little smaller - for my wife.
With buckles for my son,
With clasps for my daughter.
And put everything in a bag.
How many legs does a hedgehog have in a family?
And how many boots did you buy?

Natasha has five flowers,
And Sasha gave her two more.
>Who can count here,
How much is two and five?

Mother goose brought
Six children to walk in the meadow.
All goslings, like balls,
Three sons, how many daughters?

Four ripe pears
Swinging on a branch
Pavlusha took two pears,
And how many pears are left?

Grandson Shura good grandfather
Yesterday gave seven pieces of candy.
Grandson ate one candy.
How many pieces are left?

Mom embroidered the carpet.
Look at the pattern.
Two large cells
Each with three branches
Masha sat down on the bed,
Wants to count the branches.
No way
Who will help her?

Once to the hare for lunch
A friend-neighbor galloped up.
Bunnies sat on a stump
And ate five carrots each.
Who counts, guys, dexterous?
How many carrots have you eaten?

Under the bushes by the river
May beetles lived:
Daughter, son, father and mother.
Who can count them?

Seryozhka fell into the snow,
Alyoshka followed him.
And behind him is Irinka,
And behind her is Marinka.
And then Ignat fell.
How many were all the guys?

Hedgehog gave the ducklings
Eight leather boots.
Who will answer from the guys,
How many ducklings were there?

How they stood in a circle under the Christmas tree
A hare, a squirrel and a badger,
A hedgehog and a raccoon stood up,
Elk, a wild boar, a fox and a cat.
And the bear was the last to stand,
How many animals are there? Answer!

Preschool Math and Counting Fun

Toddler Play Activities 5 to 5 (2yrs 6m)

Make 5 shapes. For example: square, circle, rectangle, triangle, oval. Complete each shape in 5 colors. You will get 25 figures. Then you can expand the amount. Glue the shapes onto cardboard. It is advisable to stick with a sticky film. First lesson: ask the child to lay out all the red figures separately; separately - green, etc. Such an activity can be carried out for a very long time, constantly returning to it. Second lesson: offer to decompose into figures (separately - squares; separately - circles, etc.) Third lesson: lay out the figures in this way: red figures are in front of the child, green ones are behind ...

Household account (1 year 6 months)

Count everything together with the child. We note that, as in most of these activities, you should not start with prodding like “Well, let's count the steps with you!”, But you yourself should count for your own pleasure. At the beginning, your goal is to demonstrate to the child the possibilities of oral counting, to arouse interest in him.
- How many steps.
- How many apples did you buy.
- How many forks are on the table. etc.

Cards (1 year 6 months)

Make cards with numbers (up to 10 at the beginning). Cover them with foil. Learn to put them in order.

Studying zero (2 years)

You can enter zero using the following questions:
- How many cows are in your pocket?
- How many crocodiles do we have at home? etc.

- Put 5 cubes on the table. Take one at a time and ask how much is left. First, 1 cube (4 will remain), then 1 more, etc. Until 0 remains.

Count using verses (1 year 6 months)

Leonid Yakhnin. "Bench". (Draw multi-colored benches or lay them out of geometric shapes and count.)

Vladimir Orlov. “I’m counting” (After reading the poem, invite the child to lay out figures that look like animals or any geometric shapes, then count how many animals live in the zoo)

From the book “Tell poems with your hands” (based on English folklore, translated by V. Egorov)
“Kittens”
(Ask the Child to prepare five geometric figures. While reading the poem, the Child should remove one figure at a time. How many kittens are left in the room?)

Here are five kittens. One left - and he is gone.
Well, he doesn't exist - and he doesn't. There are four kittens left.
Here are four kittens. One at night sometimes
He climbed a tree - there were three kittens left.
But somewhere a little mouse squeaked thinly.
The kitten heard - there are two kittens left.
One of them with a ball disappeared in the doorway without a trace,
And the smartest one is the one left, the last one -
Milk from a bowl began to lap for five.

Curling or stroking fingers (2.5 years)

Who has more. This game can be played with two or three people. To play, you need a cube with dots. Buttons, cones, nuts, etc. can be used as counting material.
Place buttons (nuts) in a vase or box. Now take turns rolling the dice. What number falls out, so many are taken from the vase of objects. When the vase is empty, count who has more. Find a pair. Put 4-5 different toys in front of the child. (cube, ball, matryoshka, bunny…)
Put about the same number of toys aside. Invite your child to find 2 identical toys:
1) by color;
2) according to the form;
3) by size (value).
If the child chooses the wrong toy, place two toys next to each other. Ask: “Is it the same color?” “Is the cube also round?”
Option: The same task, but with pictures.
You should alternate classes with objects and pictures. What has changed? Option 1: develop visual memory.
Place 4-6 toys in front of the child. Count: the first is a Bear, the second is a bunny, etc. Then ask the baby to turn away and swap the two toys. The kid must guess what has changed. Option 2: Further, closer.
Put a house in front of the baby and 3 toys at different distances from it. Determine who is closer to the house, who is farther. Then ask the child to turn away and change the position of 2 toys. “Now who is closer to the house? Who is farther from the house? “Option 3: Above-below.
Place 3-4 cubes of different heights on the table with different toys on them. Find out which toy is higher than all, which is lower. Then ask the child to turn away and swap the two toys. “Which toy is the tallest now?”

Toddler math game

Cut out sets of animal figures or toys, such as dolls, nesting dolls, from construction paper. All figures in the set must be of different sizes and colors. On a sheet of paper, draw houses, also of different sizes.

The bears are going for a walk

Ask the child to find the biggest bear and put it down first. (underline this concept with intonation: “first”), then find the smallest one. And, finally, we will build according to the growth of all the others. If the child is at a loss, offer to attach one figure to another. When all the figures are lined up in height, come up with names for each character with the baby. Then ask: “who is our second?” Phil. Who is our last, sixth?” - "Motya".

Find a house for each bear

The meaning of the game is the same - arrange objects according to their height and practice counting. First, we arrange the figures according to their height, and then we select the houses for them by size.

Looking for a toy

Take any toy, for example, a teddy bear, tell him that he is looking for a nesting doll that is in front of the blue one (after green, between yellow and red, to the right of blue, to the left of purple). Mastering the concepts of “before”, “after”, “between”, “right”, “left” will help your child navigate the world around him.

Looking for a toy 2

It is worth preparing for this game in advance - put the images of nesting dolls on a large sheet of paper and circle them. First, you can make drawings in one row, and when the baby can easily cope with this task, place the contours on the sheet “in loose”. Tell the baby that each nesting doll has its own place, show the contours of the nesting dolls. But one day, after a walk, the nesting dolls mixed up their places. Invite your child to help them. This game develops the eye well, develops the habit of bringing the work started to the end.

Make no mistake!

Helps to master the sequence of natural numbers, exercises in forward and backward counting. The game uses a ball. Children stand in a semicircle. Before starting, they agree in what order (forward or reverse) they will count. Then they throw the ball and call the number. The one who caught the ball continues to count further. The game is played at a fast pace.

Find a toy

The driver leaves the room. At this time, hide the toy. Then the child is explained where to find it: “You need to stand in front of the table, and go 3 steps forward, two steps to the left, etc. ". Children complete the task, find a toy. When the children begin to navigate well, the tasks can be complicated - to give not a description of the location of the toy, but a diagram. According to the scheme, children must determine where the object is hidden.

Getting to know the numbers

To play, you will need counting cards with pictures. (you can download zip. above), numbers (on cards or any other), chips.
It is best to play together. Lay out all the cards face up. Put the numbers in the box. Take turns taking the numbers out of the box. The task is to find cards with the corresponding number of items. A chip is placed on the found card. The number is put back in the box.
When the game is over, count who has the most chips. It’s better to do it like this - put the chip in two rows and compare whose row is longer.

Guessing game

Yogurt boxes or plastic cups can be used for this game. Write or stick a number on each cup. Pick up some toy that will fit in the cup.
This game is played by two people. Place cups upside down. One player turns away, and the second at this time hides the toy in one of the cups. The first player must guess under which cup the toy is hidden, and the second must give him hints. For example: the toy is hidden under the cup with the number 5. The player asks: “Under the second?”. - "No more".

Who has more

This game can be played with two or three people. To play, you need a cube with dots. Buttons, cones, nuts, etc. can be used as counting material.
Place buttons (nuts) in a vase or box. Now take turns rolling the dice. What number falls out, so many are taken from the vase of objects. When the vase is empty, count who has more.

Logic puzzles for preschoolers

Giraffe, crocodile and hippo
lived in different houses.
The giraffe did not live in a red house
or in a blue house.
The crocodile did not live in the red
and not in the orange house.
Guess what houses the animals lived in?

Three fish swam
in different aquariums.
The red fish swam not in a round
and not in a rectangular aquarium.
Goldfish - not in a square
and not in a round.
In which aquarium did the green fish swim? Once upon a time there were three girls:
Tanya, Lena and Dasha.
Tanya is taller than Lena, Lena is taller than Dasha.
Which of the girls is the tallest,
and who is the shortest?
Which one of them is called?

Misha has three carts of different colors:
Red, yellow and blue.
Misha also has three toys: a tumbler, a pyramid, and a spinning top.
In the red cart he will carry neither a top nor a pyramid.
In yellow - not a top and not a tumbler.
What will Mishka be lucky in each of the carts?

The mouse is neither in the first nor in the last carriage.
The chicken is not in the middle and not in the last carriage.
In which carriages do the mouse and the chicken travel?

The dragonfly does not sit on a flower or on a leaf.
The grasshopper sits neither on a fungus nor on a flower.
The ladybug does not sit on a leaf or on a fungus. Who is sitting on what? (better to draw everything)

Alyosha, Sasha and Misha live on different floors.
Alyosha lives neither on the top floor nor on the bottom one.
Sasha does not live on the middle floor or on the bottom floor.
On which floor does each of the boys live?

Anya, Yulia and Olya's mother bought fabrics for dresses.
Anya is neither green nor red.
Yulia - not green and not yellow.
Ole - not yellow and not red.
Which fabric for which girl?

There are different fruits in three plates.
Bananas are not on a blue or orange plate.
Oranges not in a blue and pink plate.
Which plate contains plums?
What about bananas and oranges?

The flower does not grow under the tree,
The fungus does not grow under the birch.
What grows under the tree,
What grows under the birch?

Anton and Denis decided to play.
One with cubes and one with cars.
Anton did not take the typewriter.
How did Anton and Denis play?

Vika and Katya decided to paint.
One girl drew with paints,
and the other with pencils.
What did Katya start to draw with?

Red and Black clowns performed with a ball and a ball.
The red-haired clown did not perform with a ball,
A black clown did not perform with a ball.
What subjects did the Red and Black clowns perform with?

Lisa and Petya went to the forest to pick mushrooms and berries.
Lisa did not pick mushrooms. What did Petya collect?

Two cars were driving on a wide and a narrow road.
The truck was not driving on a narrow road.
Which road was the car driving on?
And the truck?

Learning to tell time by the clock

First, let's make a fake watch.
Perfectly made from a cake box, the cake can be eaten. The difficulty is different: many years and many children have led us to the idea that ordinary wall clocks are an unnecessary study load and these activities need to be simplified and done in stages.

First, we make a regular dial, but we leave the minute dashes bare, without defining the number of minutes, and we also abolish the minute hand.
Time is divided into:

• hour,
• just over an hour,
• half past one (or one and a half),
• about two,
• two,
• is a little more than two, and so on.

When this part is over and the child is oriented clockwise with complete confidence, we proceed to work with the minute hand within one hour (60 minutes), but this can also be done in parallel. And do not rush to combine the arrows!

Work with the hour hand can be started in 3.5-4 years, and we see no particular reason to hurry.

Most first-graders are not able to tell the time by looking at clocks with hands. This is a medical fact.

Very often it seems that a child of six or seven years old is about to learn to tell time accurately, but time passes and confusion continues.

It seems to us that this problem is easily explained by the fact that what to connect in the minds of two superimposed dials - hour and minute - for a child's mind is a colossal burden , and a child should not be taught to determine the time by such a clock.

Throw away the minute hand and the dial division into minutes. There are 12 digits left and dividing the time by, for example, four, a little more than four, half past five, about five, five, a little more than five. There is plenty of such a rough division of time for a child, and this can be taught starting from four to four and a half years. Let it take a YEAR. Don't force things.

Only when the child perfectly feels the position of the hour hand, very slowly, minute by minute, enter the second parallel dial. Take your time with quarters (Quarter and Quarter), take your time with five minutes, ten minutes, etc. This should be moved to the next, separate stage. Let your wall clock in the room or in the kitchen have only an hour hand for a long time, but the numbers can be changed, Roman numerals can be entered almost immediately.

And if we have long been giving all the concepts and it seems. that victory is near, is it right to go further or still return to the clock face?

We think that the introduction for some time of a dial with only an hour hand will create a correct sense of time in the child and improve his relationship with the clock.

Mosaic of buttons - educational game for children

At the age of 6, innervation occurs in children (supply of organs and tissues with nerves, which ensures their connection with the central nervous system). The upper phalanges of the fingers (pads) become sensitive.

Why buttons?

Different texture, many colors, shades, sizes and shapes. There is no specified form for the composition. The child develops a sense of space and a sense of color. Button exercises help develop fine motor skills.
You can buy these buttons at any store, and for the first lessons, use the stocks in your home. Surely your closets store clothes that you don't wear. Argue with her buttons and you can start classes.

But the main idea of ​​the “button mosaic” is that by school the child has formed images of the sets 2, 3, 4, 5. To do this, even before the age of six, the child needs to play enough to fix the images of the sets through objects. This should be done only through the real world, not informationally (cartoons and books), but through sensory perception: tactility, tangibility, smell, etc. Interaction with an object (a kitten, a chair, a toy car, etc.) is much more emotional, so the images are brighter and are fixed clearly.

How many eyes? Two. And the ear? Two. Show two fingers. And the cat's paws? Four.

In no case should you count, just call - four.

When the images are fixed, i.e. the child easily shows 2,3,4 without counting, you can proceed to operate with sets on the fingers or on any other counting material. How else can you show four? Two and two. There are five fingers on the hand. And if you break it into two groups, into three? How else can you show three and three? It's five and one. And the more options are played, the more clearly the images of the sets are fixed in the child. How can you divide 10? Again looking for different options.

Large bones, nuts, stones, etc. can be used. An ideal occupation is to sort out cereals by 3 grains, by 2, by 4. Quite semantic and useful activity. You can also divide a large amount of something into sets. A dozen is enough for the school to easily give an oral count of four-digit numbers (without resorting to counting in a column), and the multiplication table - you don’t have to cram.

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