Preschool Numbers Activities
This number activity is low prep, perfect for the moms(like me) that have lots of great printables saved/pinned but no time to actually print it out! It only takes a minute to set up- literally, and you can change it up according to your child's ability.
You will need:
- a blank paper(the bigger the better)
- a marker
- variety of colors of dab markers(Dab-o-Ink or Do-a-Dot for example)
Draw blocks with numbers on the one side of the paper and blocks with tiny dots(like a die/dice) on the other side and not in the same order as the numbered blocks.
Ask your child to choose a color and dab the first number. Then, let him/her look for the corresponding "dice" and dab the correct number of dots. This is recognizing the number and the number of dots and connecting the two, known as perceptual skills. (My daughter chose to do it the other way around: first matching the two sides, then dabbing. This is fine for older kids, but I suggest you do the dabbing first for a child still learning about basic numbers.)
Finally, match the number to the dice by drawing a line from the number to the correct dice. This part works on hand eye coordination, midline crossing and pre-writing skills together with perceptual skills.
You can change up the numbers: start with only one number and one number on a dice for a toddler to learn to dab correspondingly, for older kids you can do more than once dice to work on adding skills.
Would your preschooler like this activity? Any more ideas on how to adapt this for younger/older kids? Please share!
Also see these number activities for little ones:
Nadia is South African mom to two littlies, a former preschool teacher and currently working as a reading therapist at a remedial school. She blogs over at Teach Me Mommy about easy and playful activities inspiring you to be your child's first teacher. Follow along on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.
