Pre K Math Activities

Give Your Preschooler A Fun Introduction To The World Of Math With These 7 Hands-on Pre K Math Activities

Most kids in the world wouldn’t sit down willingly for a math lesson. And with good reason, the word math can intimidate grown-ups too. Kids love having fun and learning math is never considered a fun activity, it’s always something that scares everyone. This is mostly because most children fear their own ability and they’ve never been taught that learning math can be fun too. This is why the right introduction matters, math activities and games make learning more fun and engaging. Introduce your preschooler to the world of math with these 7 fun and hands-on pre k math activities.

The best way to teach math to a preschooler is to use engaging, hands-on activities. Math games for kids make learning the subject more enjoyable and easy. Additionally, these games and hands-on activities will ensure that the information is retained in their memory. Here is a list of 7 fun and engaging pre k math activities that will have your little one diving into math with gusto.

7 Fun And Engaging Pre K Math Activities

These free pre k math activities are not only fun but they’re easy for your child to learn and they’re easy for you to put together. They require very basic materials, most of which you will have on hand. Don’t stress if you don’t have them, you can make do with whatever materials you have.

• Number Jump: Outdoor Number And Counting Activity: This is one of the most perfect pre k math activities for your kid if he or she is an outdoorsy person. All you need are some colorful pieces of chalk to write on the floor. Draw 20 circles on the floor. Ensure there is a bit of space between each circle, your kids should be able to hop from one circle to the next. Write numbers from 1 to 20 in random order in these circles. Now ask your child to start at 1 and hop onto the circle with the next number as they count sequentially. Here is a  number chart 1 -20 to help your little ones revise their knowledge of numbers before the activity.
• Counting Pinecones: Keep your little one occupied this fall with one of the easiest pre k math activities. All you need to do this activity are some pinecones and colorful chalk. If your little one is fond of playing outdoors, this is a great activity for them. Write the numbers from 1 to 10 on the ground. Leave a bit of space between each number. Now ask your child to place the count the right number of pinecones and place them in front of each number. 

Counting is an important skill that all kids need to learn. Here are some hands-on counting activities for preschoolers, which will help them learn how to count.

• Scoop The Right Amount Of Ice Cream: Who doesn’t like ice cream? Help your preschooler learn how to count with one of the most amazing pre k math activities. You’ll need some colorful pom poms and several bowls for this activity. Before you start the activity, write the numbers 1 – 10 on each of the bowls.

Place the bowls side by side. Now ask your child to count the right number of pompoms and place it in the right bowl to match the number on the bowl. You can make it more challenging by asking the child to sort them according to flavor/color.

For example: Say, “I’d like 3 scoops of vanilla ice cream in the white bowl.” Your child will have to scoop 3 white pom poms into the white bowl. If you don’t have pompoms on hand, don’t stress. You can use legos or different colored craft paper, cut into tiny circles.

• Shape Treasure Hunt: This is one of the best pre k math activities for kids that you can do indoors. Shape recognition is an important part of early math learning. So, a shape treasure hunt is one of most fun and entertaining pre k math activities to introduce preschoolers to geometry. First, draw a circle, a rectangle, a square and a triangle on four pieces of paper. Lay them on the floor or on a flat surface. Teach your child the name of each of those shapes. Then, ask your preschooler to find things in the house that match up to the shapes.

You can do this pre k math activity outdoors too. Additionally, this is one of the best pre k math activities to do with kids at Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving. Take your child out for a walk in the neighborhood and ask them to point out objects that match a particular shape. For example: Ask your child to point out everything that looks like a circle. You can also make shapes using popsicle sticks. Find out how to make them in 10 easy popsicle stick crafts for kids.

• Sort Hearts By Color: This is one of the easiest pre k math activities to do with your little one. Additionally, you will have fun doing it. This activity promotes color and shape recognition in your little one. To perform this activity, you’ll need small foam hearts in green, red, orange, purple, blue and yellow and large heart-shaped paper cutouts.

Place the foam heart cutouts in a small box and mix them up. Ask your child to match the tiny hearts to the big ones according to color. Help your child learn more about shapes in these shape games for kids. 

• Measure Rice For Rainbow Discovery Bottle: Measurement is an important skill that little kids need to learn. They might not use the knowledge of weight and volume until much later. But it is useful to teach them the concept early. This is one of the best pre k math activities for kids to learn about measurement. You’ll need some empty water bottles, a scoop, a funnel and rice that is dyed the colors of the rainbow.

Ask your child to measure out the rice using measuring cups. For example, say, “Give me one cup of yellow rice.” or “Could you measure half a cup of green rice?” Measure each of the colored rice before you add it into the bottle. Help your child place the funnel on the bottle and fill the bottle with the rice. Start with the violet color rice and then add indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and end with the red colored rice.

• Number Coloring Worksheets: Kids love nothing better than an afternoon of coloring. This is one of the best pre k math activities worksheets for little kids to learn about numbers. These worksheets are a great way to promote number recognition and counting. So give your child some number coloring worksheets and crayons and watch the magic happen. Explain to your child that they must color according to the number. Try these color by number worksheets to help your child learn how to write the numbers.

Why Teach Children Pre K Math Activities?

Most kids fear math and this fear makes them doubt their ability to understand math and solve problems. However, there are ways to overcome this fear of math. Pre k math activities make learning math an enjoyable experience for little ones. Here are some ways that pre k math activities are beneficial for your child.

• The right introduction: It matters to introduce or teach a concept to a child in the right manner. Introducing math to a preschooler or toddler using pre k math activities helps them understand what math is. These fun activities help them understand that math isn’t really intimidating and learning math can be fun. Additionally, it helps your child learn to overcome their fear of math and learn to love the subject.
• Normalize challenges: Math is difficult to learn for most of us. Help your child understand that facing challenges is ok. Help them figure out a different way that will help them learn math easily.
• Math games and activities: Kids love to play games. Learning can be so much more fun and engaging when you add a few games and activities in between. Playing math games will also engage multiple senses and help speed up learning. 
• Encourage them to ask questions: Help your child learn math through questions. If your child asks you to help them out with a math problem, don’t solve the problem. Instead, ask leading questions and help them figure out the answer themselves. When they solve problems on their own, it boosts their confidence and they can tackle more problems on their own. 
• Slow down: Not all kids learn fast. Some need more help to figure out math problems. In such cases, slow down and spend more time on each concept until they figure it out.
• Teach them at their level of ability: Sometimes we make the mistake of not paying attention to a child’s ability. Kids don’t think and learn like adults, they learn differently. Go down to the level of your child’s ability, understand their areas of weakness and work towards helping them improve these areas. Learn different methods like pre k math activities to teach math to your kid.

Math is a foundational subject. All kids need to learn math and preschool is the best time to start. When you start them early with fun, engaging pre k math activities, the math won’t seem so intimidating anymore. Kids love to do anything that involves fun and play. If you teach your child to have fun learning math, they’ll love doing math too. It won’t seem so scary anymore. And when you love doing something, you’ll want to do more of it.

Looking for more activities and games that will help in your kids’ learning? Check out these activities and games on Osmo – fun math activities for preschoolers and math activities for toddlers.

Frequently Asked Questions on Pre K Math Activities