Preschool math begins with counting. Incorporating counting into everyday activities is a great way to get preschoolers familiar with numbers, counting, and understanding quantities. Counting is also a fantastic way to foster an early love of math.
Count toys as you put them away together; or count stairs; or count how many bites of food are on the plate; when reading a story, stop and count how many flowers/ducks/ladybugs/etc. are on the page. During bath time, my son and I counted together and sang the alphabet. It just became part of our routine. At age 3, my son learned to count to 50. At age 4, he learned to count to 100, as well as count by 10s.
Just like with the alphabet weekly activities, ask your child to air write numbers and trace their numbers in a salt tray.
MATH WORKSHEETS:
Check out my math worksheets page to find number recognition, numerical order, counting, and shape recognition.
I Spy Counting Worksheets: I created lots of “I Spy” counting worksheets. These are a fun way to get your preschooler excited about counting 🙂
Math Activities:
Apple Counting: pick a flashcard and look at the number shown on the card. Now grab the same number of pompoms as shown on the card and put the pompoms on your apple tree. (free flashcards and apple tree PDF available)
Preschoolers also need to understand size, shapes, patterns, and quantities (more than / less than).
- Try this worksheet for understanding size concepts: Circle the Big One (downloadable PDF)
- Shape matching: draw a line connecting all of the matching shapes.
MEASURING:
My son and I did a lot of measuring with various objects we found around our home:
We measured with mini-marshmallows, paperclips, feathers, blocks, toy cars, M&Ms, and anything else that we had in large quantities.
In our umbrella measuring activity, not only did my son have to count his blocks and his toy cars, but he also had to figure more than and less than.
He counted how many Mega Bloks he used (13) and how many cars he used (7). Then I asked him which one he used the most of, Mega Bloks or cars? This took some thinking on his part and I had to use different wording, asking if “13 is more than 7?” And then I asked which he used least of for measuring his umbrella.
You can replicate this activity with any object that your child has.