Math is one of the most important subjects that children learn in school.

Fun and Engaging Preschool Math Activities

However, it doesn’t always have to be taught through traditional methods. With the right approach, math can be fun and engaging for preschoolers. In this blog post, we’ll explore some exciting preschool math activities that can help your child develop a love for numbers and start building math skills from an early age.

Counting Games

Counting games are a great way to introduce math concepts to preschoolers. You can use everyday objects like toys, blocks, or even food items like crackers, to play these games. You can also incorporate games like “I Spy” or “Guess How Many” into your daily routine to make counting more exciting. Encouraging your child to count everything they see is a great way to help them develop number recognition skills.

Sorting Activities

Sorting is another important math skill that preschoolers need to learn. You can use toys, objects, or even colored paper to teach your child how to sort by size, color, shape, or texture. You can also create sorting games like “Clean Up the Toys” or “Put the Clothes Away” to make this activity more engaging.

Shapes and Patterns

Teaching your child about shapes and patterns can be a lot of fun. You can use toys, stickers, or even food items to create different shapes and patterns. You can also encourage your child to look for shapes and patterns in daily life, such as finding circles in a pizza or triangles in a stop sign.

Number Recognition

Number recognition is an essential math skill that your child needs to learn before they can start counting and doing math operations. You can use number flashcards or even create your own number posters to help your child recognize numbers from 1 to 10. You can also play games like “What Comes After” or “What Comes Before” to help your child learn number sequences.

Math Songs and Rhymes

Math songs and rhymes are a great way to make math fun and memorable for preschoolers. You can find many fun and catchy songs on the internet or make up your own songs about counting, shapes, and patterns. Singing and dancing together is not only fun but also helps children remember math concepts better.

Teaching math to preschoolers doesn’t have to be boring or difficult. By incorporating these five fun and engaging activities into your child’s daily routine, you can help them develop a strong math foundation and start building lifelong math skills. Remember to keep it fun, be patient, and try to explore different activities until you find the ones that work best for your child. Math can be fun and rewarding, and with the right approach, your child can learn to love numbers too!

Fun Preschool Math Activities

Math skills are fundamental for preschoolers and include number sense, sorting, counting, and spatial sense. These activities help kids develop these important concepts in fun ways.

One of the most basic math skills is one-to-one correspondence. This means that every object counted represents a specific number. Children can practice this skill by playing hopscotch, which involves landing on numbers and counting each jump.

Counting in Tubes

When preschoolers think of math, their natural space to head is to focus on memorizing number names and counting. And while those skills are important, there is so much more to math that can be learned through hands-on play. These activities provide just that!

Learning one-to-one correspondence is so important for preschoolers, and this counting activity helps them work on that skill. It requires only a few materials, and kids can use their fingers to count the bears or a dry erase marker (laminated sheets are great for this) to trace their answers. This is also a fun way to work on fine motor skills!

Graphing is an important skill for preschoolers to develop, and this is a simple way to get started. You can start with a pictograph, and progress to a bar graph as they get older. This is a great opportunity to build in some color recognition as well.

Kids can practice pattern recognition and sorting with this fun activity. It’s easy, inexpensive, and can be used over and over again. Give kids a stack of plastic links and some numbers, then have them link the plastic pieces together- counting each one as they go. They can even do this on their own in stations or as independent work.

This activity is an introduction to addition and subtraction for preschoolers, and it’s so much fun! It’s a great way to practice recognizing numbers, and it’s also a fun way to work on fine and gross motor skills. It’s a great activity to add to your daily routine!

Penguin Shape Matching

This winter-themed shape matching activity is a fun way to build shapes and fine motor skills! Kids can match the penguin shapes to their icebergs or use this printable as a simple shape sorting activity in an Antarctica-themed sensory bin.

This free shape match game is a great way to learn about different 2D shapes. Each big square has a shape picture and then below that are 3 different shaped penguin pictures. The goal is to click on the penguin shape that matches the big shape picture. This activity is a fun way to practice and review circle, triangle, rectangle, oval, heart, star, octagon, trapezoid, and diamond shape recognition!

To play this iceberg shape matching game, lay out the two mats and then provide each child with a set of shape cards. Encourage them to start by looking at the large shape picture and then finding the corresponding card that matches it. They can do this on their own or in small groups. This is a great way to work on turn-taking and playing cooperatively as well!

If you would like to take this game one step further, laminate the mats and then place velcro dots on each square and shape. This will make it more challenging for older children, and the children can also practice using their fine motor skills to stick velcro on the squares and then onto the shapes. This is a great way to get some extra shape practice and learning in for older preschoolers!

Counting to 10 with Rubber Duckies

Kids learn math in lots of everyday ways: they count steps on a flight of stairs, help you measure ingredients as you cook, categorize their toys into groups and more. With proper guidance, these informal mathematical ideas become part of their formal knowledge, and lay the foundation for more complex concepts like counting, graphing, measuring, shapes, and sorting.

It’s important to teach children math as early as possible, as it promotes working memory and improves attention and other basic cognitive skills. But traditional flash cards and worksheets can squelch their natural interest in the subject. Instead, try these engaging preschool math activities to encourage a lifelong love for the topic.

This fun math activity is great for kids who need to practice their counting skills. Give kids a bag of small items, such as bear counters or pencils, and ask them to count how many items are in each group. This is a great way to help them distinguish between odd and even numbers, as well as recognize the patterns of counting.

The key to this ten-frame activity is to get creative and find a bunch of different types of objects that have numbers on them, such as books, boxes, magazines, toys, etc. Then, have kids use the ten-frames to find and match up all of the matching objects. Then, they can enjoy a few of the matching items as a snack!

This simple yet effective math activity is perfect for kids who need to work on their sorting and categorizing skills. Simply provide kids with a bunch of different shaped objects, such as toys, snacks, and more, and ask them to sort the objects by shape. They can then use the sorted groups to create some cool DIY artwork.

Sensory Counting in Cups

Learning to count, recognize numerals, and one-to-one correspondence are important skills for preschoolers to master. Using sensory activities to practice these concepts is an easy way to make them fun and engaging!

This dinosaur-themed counting activity is an excellent way to practice counting, recognizing numbers, and fine motor skills! It also incorporates a fun theme that will make kids excited to learn.

If you’re looking for a fun spring or Easter counting game, try this simple set-up! It’s great for practicing identifying numbers and one-to-one correspondence, as well as fine motor skills. Plus, it’s super easy to setup and clean-up!

Another fun way to work on number recognition and counting is with this pond-themed activity. Add some water and a few rocks, sticks, flowers, or leaves from outside to your sensory bin and then let your kids use tally marks to count each item!

For an extra level of challenge, mix it up and put the cups in a different order. This will make it harder for kids to figure out which cup has the next number, so it’s a great way to reinforce cardinality!

A fun way to practice number identification is with this zoo-themed counting game. Kids will love searching for the numbers in this fun fine motor activity!

Counting Balloons

Preschoolers don’t just learn numbers; they also learn about a wide range of math concepts. They recognize shapes, compare sizes and weights of objects, practice one-to-one correspondence by pairing items like spoons and forks or horses and cowboy figurines, and develop a sense of space through their play with building toys. In fact, you’ll see them utilizing many forms of math all around them—they count the steps up to the front door, use tally marks to track how much candy they’ve eaten, or make maps of their bedrooms and rooms in their home.

You can support these informal mathematical skills by encouraging them to use number words, tracing numerals, and using a variety of counting strategies such as on fingers, tally marks, or in tens frames. You can also challenge them to find patterns in everyday items like coins, socks, or cups. If you want to kick it up a notch, create addition or subtraction problems in 3*3 tic tac toe and have them race to solve them.

Other ways to work on these skills are by providing kids with opportunities to use the math language of tall, short, round, and rectangular. You can do this by writing letter recognition words on balloons (like these CVC sight word balloon sort or this word endings balloon game), by having them “race” a tally mark on a piece of string with colored balloons, or by arming them with bins labeled with place values like ones, tens, and hundreds and asking them to toss beanbags into each one.

You can also encourage addition and subtraction by laying out construction paper puddles that are numbered, then having them hop from one to the next while calling out numbers and seeing who gets their number first. Or, you can have them number their toy cars and put them into a cardboard parking lot as they work on one-to-one addition and subtraction.