Fun learning to count Games for Preschoolers & a Free Printable.
Learning to count takes time, even if a child can rote learn a set of numbers, sometimes its remembered in order (much like song lyrics). Learning the meanings of those numbers takes time and for learning to be productive and remembered, it should always be fun. Not like a chore. It should be enjoyed so that children actually WANT to learn.
That’s why I made this printable that I want to share with you. To encourage the practice of numbers and counting in a fun yet meaningful game. By using treasure, eyeballs, stones and a dry-erase marker, this printable can be used in many ways to encourage and develop early numeracy.
Print your printable here and laminate it.
Learning to Count with treasure.
I used a cute little treasure box to make this activity more appealing for Miss T. Using some craft jewels and some child friendly tweezers, added a fine motor skill building aspect to the game. Miss T automatically put her jewels on the diagonal line, I let her go. When she finished we counted them. Then she did the bottom row and we counted them together. She is still in the habit of skipping ahead with her counting so when we counted we made sure to point to each one and say the numbers together. I asked her to pick one in the middle and tell me how many jewels she can put along that line. She did, 4 and counted herself while pointing.
Learning to count with Monster eyes.
Little craft eyes work well with tweezers too. They’re a bit slippery and small to get, so it takes patience and a persistent steady hand to get them. Miss T had good focus and got the hang of it for a while, then she resorted to picking them up with her fingers as it was faster. The printable has spots to guide their counting which means craft eye balls look pretty cool on them, like monster eyes. I asked how many monsters eyes can she make? Then I did a line and asked her to count them. Then we did sets, from number two down.
DIY Dry-erase Learning to count Placemat.
Once you print your Placemat, laminate it and you have your own dry-erase surface. Grab a white board marker and ask your child to write in the bubbles. They can use the numbers up the left side as a guide to ensure they get there numbers around the write way. This is great practice for Kindy kids and children who still get there number 2 & 5 facing the wrong way. They have the freedom to write directly down, on a diagonal or the repetition of filling in all the lines. For Miss T who is only 3, I let her have a little practice and then she went on to trace the circles and count the circles by putting a dot on each one.
Learn early Numeracy and Math with lucky stones.
Using some lucky stones Dimples tried teaching Miss T how to do Math sums. He kindly put 3 stones along the third line, then 5 along the 5th line and drew a plus and an equals symbol and asked Miss t to count them together. Then he put 8 stones to the side to show that is how many they add up to. It was his own activity and what a fine little teacher he was being for his sister. Using this technique, it is a simple way of learning early math. Do the equation out of stone, and let them work out the answer.
I hope you enjoy this and find it a useful play-Based learning activity that you can easily do at home. I would love to know how your child plays with it. You can join me on FACEBOOK & PINTEREST.
Enjoy xx
Nae.
james says
thankyou soo much for your help