Preschool number practice

40 Awesome Number Activities for Preschoolers

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16 Dec

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Number activities for preschoolers don't have to be boring and just worksheets, make them fun so your preschooler will love math!

I love math. I’m a nerd, yes. But I love anything to do with numbers.

I really do hope I can pass this along to my kids by making learning activities about numbers and counting fun for them and not a chore.

As I’m typing this, Henry’s shouting excitedly as he’s counting how many things on his sprayer…though I’m not really sure what he’s counting exactly. He made it to 39 though!

Because I’m a huge math nerd I searched for easy and fun number activities for preschoolers.

My Favorite 40+ Number Activities for Preschoolers!

Try these activities to help preschoolers learn their ABCs!

Recognizing Numbers Activities for Preschoolers

Identifying numbers can be a learning experience for preschoolers (and younger!). Many of the ABC recognition activities can also be adjusted for numbers.

My kids love these 12 number activities for preschoolers to recognize numbers.

1. Turn a number into sensory art – perfect for the 100th day of school!
2. Go on a hunt for numbers and match it with the same number!
3. Follow a number from start to finish in a maze.
4. Trace numbers, really big!
5. Little Family Fun created a parking lot with numbers.
6. Pop! Find the number and pop it!
7. Find and match playing cards.
8. Have target practice with water balloons and numbers, like Motherhood on a Dime
9. Make art! Do this paint by number canvas art.
10. Use stickers and printable number cards to play hide and seek, from Teach Mama.
11. Draw and paint over numbers with q-tips, like Toddler at Play!
12. Clip and match with giant numbers from You’ve Got This Math!

Activities for Number Recognition

Counting Activities for Preschoolers

Learning there’s a sequence to the numbers and what comes next. Try these 18 number activities to help preschoolers learn to count.

1. Connect the dots! A simple past-time activity that reinforces the order of numbers.
2. Upcycle a box into a puzzle of numbers!
3. Create a maze of numbers to drive through. Can they count their way to the end?
4. Stacking up boxes and counting how high you can go!
5. Make a craft together with multiple pieces. Have your child do the counting!
6. Count cars of a particular color while on the road, or semis, or vans, whatever suits their interest!
7. Create a learning game with your ABC mat and number blocks. Choose a number block and pound the corresponding times with a hammer on the corresponding number mat!
8. Let your child run an experiment and measure how much something holds! How many cups fit?
9. Make puzzles with a picture. Label sections of the puzzle in numerical order. Cut apart and have your child put it back together again, from Growing in PreK.
10. Use friendly animal crackers to practice counting and number recognition, like I Can Teach My Child.
11. Measure objects (or yourself!) and count how big they are, from The Imagination Tree
12. Count objects around the house. No Time For Flash Cards wants to know “How many doors do you have?”
13. Play any board game, or make your own! Little Family Fun creates a fish race game!
14. Count with LEGO! Do Play Learn likes to label a paper with numbers and count out the LEGO next to it.
15. Snack time! Use dice and fruit snacks and play until you eat them all up, like Kids Activities Blog.
16. Have a bean bag toss on the stairs, number them!
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Counting Activities for Preschoolers

One to One Correspondence Activities for Preschoolers

Knowing your numbers is one thing and knowing how to count is another. But being able to put them into context that they each have meaning is done with one to one correspondence.

Get ready for preschool with 35 name activities!

I love these 12 number activities that help a preschool practice one to one correspondence.

1. Head out into nature and explore flowers. Count and compare flower petals! 
2. Go on a hunt for a number and match it to its corresponding dots.
3. Build towers of blocks on a number mat, with the correct number of blocks high!
4. Spark your child’s interest with their interests! A farming approach of loading grain bins with the corresponding number of pieces of “grain.”
5. Have a newspaper throwing game and count up the newspaper balls, or how many you make, or miss!
6. Make something in the kitchen together, or do an experiment and let your child measure out and do the counting.
7. Sort through objects by color, and count how many you have of each!
8. Fill a dump truck with objects (like Dominoes!) and count how many you can fit in there, like Inspiration Laboratories.
9. Estimate first for some fun and then count item, from Teach Preschool.
10. Have a counting race in the front yard and pick dandelions in the process!
11. Roll a die (or two!) and practice one to one correspondence as kids build towers with blocks.
12. Use a dice and small objects (like pom poms or corn kernels) and count them and fill up a tray.

One to One Number Activities for Preschoolers

Counting and number books that will get preschoolers excited about numbers:

• The Baker’s Dozen: A Counting Book
• I Spy Numbers
• One Big Building: A Counting Book About Construction (Know Your Numbers)

Do you actively work on numbers and counting with your child? Share your favorite activities!

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About Jamie Reimer

Jamie learned to be a hands on mom by creating activities, crafts and art projects for her three boys to do. Jamie needed the creative outlet that activities provided to get through the early years of parenting with a smile! Follow Jamie on Pinterest and Instagram!

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50+ Number Activities for Preschoolers

These number activities for preschoolers include many fun, engaging, and hands-on ways to explore numbers with young children. If you’re looking for math activities for preschoolers and kindergartners that focus on numbers, you’ve come to the right place!

Below, you’ll find a variety of preschool number activities to suit your needs. They let kids practice early math skills like number recognition, number formation, one-to-one correspondence, and counting. There are even a variety of number printables perfect for early childhood classrooms.

And all of the number activities take into account how young children learn. So the ideas encourage hands-on exploration with numbers and manipulatives.

Coming up, you’ll find all of the number-related activities from Fun-A-Day. I’ll keep adding to the list as I share more here with you, so be sure to pop back and check.

Table of Contents

Click on the links that interest you the most, and be sure to save your favorite ones! I’ve started a new Numbers Pinterest board if that’s where you like saving links.

These number activities will help you teach a variety of important early math skills, like:

• One-to-one correspondence
• Number identification
• Number formation
• Matching numerals to quantities
• Numerical order
• Skip counting
• Subitizing

We can’t talk about number activities for preschoolers without touching on counting, right? The links below can all be used to practice concepts like those listed above.

While each of these are different math skills, they’re very much interrelated. And, depending on the ages and needs of your students, you will focus on different ones with the following ideas.

Of course, there will be more coming in the future, and I’ll be sure to add the links then.

As promised, I also have some printables to add to this collection of number activities for preschoolers! While I’m not a fan of preschool worksheets, that usually only serve one purpose, I do rather like printables that can be used multiple ways.

In fact, I have over 40 number printables perfect for preschool and kindergarten classrooms! You can check them out by clicking on the link below:

Free Preschool Number Printables

Like the non-printable number ideas, these printables have been used with kids in both preschool and kindergarten. And they’re all great ways to explore early math concepts. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Rainbow Yarn Sensory Bin (with printable rainbow and gold ten frames)
• Printable Bat Emergent Reader (that’s all about counting bats)
• Snowman Roll and Cover

Okay, I’ll stop there. Since there are so many printable number activities for preschoolers, it’s best if you click through the link above. That way you can find just the right one for you and your kids!

Okay, okay. So I didn’t stop there. Because I wanted to highlight a subset of the number printables. And those are the calendar numbers!

I highly recommend that you grab a few sets for yourself. You can use the number cards in SO MANY ways! They’re super easy to prep, and the illustrations allow for some whimsy throughout the year. Click on the link below to check them out:

Calendar Numbers

I have quite a few more planned out for the upcoming year. So be sure to save that post, too. That way you can get your hands on them as soon as they’re ready!

Since I mentioned above the various skills these number activities for preschoolers can cover, I thought we’d chat a bit about what the terms mean.

We, as adults, tend to use the term “counting” to cover a few different bases. When it comes to early math, counting means determining the total number of items in a particular group.

Some examples of counting:

• Holding up a finger for each year in a child’s age and counting them out loud. “One, two, three, four.”
• Placing toy cars out on the table and counting them along the way.
• Looking at five kids in line and counting them 1 through 5, sequentially.

So counting includes both numbers and sets of items. And the understanding that the last number said is the total of the items in the group.

If you’re here, you’re likely a teacher or caregiver of a young child. No doubt you’ve experienced said child practicing their counting (sometimes over and over and over again, right?!).

That’s rote counting – saying the numbers in order. Specifically, rote counting is reciting numbers in order (from memory). There are no specific objects being counted. The numbers are being said out loud in sequential order.

And, as with most things when it comes to young children, there are a few steps along the way to true rote counting. From toddlers saying, “One, three, nine . . .” to preschoolers counting to 20 but skipping 15, children work their way up to counting out loud.

One-to-one correspondence is the understanding that every object in a group can only be counted once; that every number corresponds with a specific quantity. It can also be explained as matching one item to one corresponding item or number.

This understanding is developed with lots of playful practice, in many different hands-on ways. Some examples of one-to-one correspondence in early childhood:

• Putting a counting bear on top of a toy block – “I have one bear and one block!”
• Placing manipulatives in a ten-frame, one frame at a time, with only one manipulative per square
• Touching one toy at a time while saying the corresponding number out loud
• Moving beads on a string as they’re being counted
• Pointing to kids in line, one by one, and counting along the way
• Counting each time a child hops on one foot

Most of the number activities for preschoolers included in this post can be used for counting with one-to-one correspondence. The activities help children move from rote counting to rational counting.

One-to-one correspondence helps children learn that each number corresponds to a specific quantity. Using things like magnetic numbers or printable number cards can help kids move forward with corresponding quantities with numerals.

For example, you might place one of the calendar numbers on the table. It’s the numeral 5. Then your students can count out 5 Unifix cubes, one at a time, counting each one only once. So many early math skills are very much intertwined, so kids are exploring multiple concepts with each of the number activities for preschoolers.

Now that we’ve delved into all the fun number activities for preschoolers you can try out soon, let’s chat supplies. You don’t really have to have a certain type of material to teach kids about numbers. In fact, that’s one of the great things about preschool math – you can use items on-hand or already in your environment.

But, if you are looking for some suggestions, I’ve got you covered (I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post):

• Jumbo number magnets
• Counting bears
• Unifix cubes
• Sandpaper numerals

Now you’ll have to tell me what YOUR favorite number activities for preschoolers are! Leave them in the comments below this post.

Let Preschool Teacher 101 make your teaching life easier with fully-developed, done-for-you preschool resources. That way you spend more time teaching and living your life, and less time planning!

We’ve got quite a few number-themed math resources that your students will love! They help support your math lessons and allow kids to practice number skills. Click on the images below to read more about a few of our resources:

And be sure to check out The Pack from Preschool Teacher 101, a membership for preschool teachers just like you. With over 100 lesson plans, over 130 supplemental resources, editable templates, trainings, and more . . . The Pack can save you a ton of time!

You can also find us on Teachers Pay Teachers.

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