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Matching numerals with quantity. Can also be done with number words.

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Brooks is still working on his language, so at times I wonder how much he is internalizing as we read or play learning activities. With this activity specifically, he tried his very best to say the numbers and help me count each noodle. He eventually wanted to add more spaghetti noodles... and even when he did that... he still tried to say the numbers. This simple homemade learning activity was so much fun for him that he was learning without even realizing it (that is how most effective learning will take place). He was working on his counting, colors (matching the playdoh and numbers), and hand/motor skills.

Not only is this activity SUPER easy for a mom to set up, but you don't have to go out and purchase a single thing!

All you need is:

-Playdoh

-Spaghetti noodles

-Rotini noodles (anything you have that he could slide on... cheerios, fruit loops, etc)

-Numbers: ( Free printable)

Playdoh and spaghetti for the win!

Psalms 3:3 But you, O Lord, are a shield around me; you are my glory, the one who hold my head high
You may also be interested in:

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Brooks is still working on his language, so at times I wonder how much he is internalizing as we read or play learning activities. With this activity specifically, he tried his very best to say the numbers and help me count each noodle. He eventually wanted to add more spaghetti noodles...

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Matching numerals and quantity

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" One, two, buckle my shoe..." ~Old English Nursery Rhyme

When it comes to counting, children about 2.5 and up begin with memorizing the sequence of numbers; rote counting. As they get older, they will start counting with understanding; rational counting. In order to count with understanding, the smalls need to understand one to one correspondence.

One to one correspondence is the ability to match one object to one corresponding number or object. An example would be 2 feet to 2 shoes. 12 muffin papers to 12 holes in the muffin tin. Or even simply counting your fingers, matching the number with your fingers as you go.

You probably will notice in really young children, that they will hold up incorrect finger amounts as they count to five on their hands, or they will count all the way up to 10 when their are only 6 objects in front of them...they have not yet grasped the concept of one to one correspondence. This is quite alright, in fact it's perfectly normal. It comes with age and experience, just like any other skill.

One to one correspondence can be practiced ANYWHERE! You can count cars with your child as they pass, count bites of food as they reach their mouths, count their little toes in the bathtub, count the animals in the story books you read together. There are so many opportunities...you will see them the more you look for them.

To help the smalls practice their one to one correspondence, I made a little fishing game for them. I am a huge believer that learning should be colourful and fun, and should not feel so much like work, so I gathered a few simple things from our toy shelves and we got started!

MATERIALS NEEDED: *You can use any fish you have on hand, or frogs, or shells, or whatever you like. We used the Safari Ltd. mini clownfish because they are so bright and colourful and easily distinguished from the numbers. I purchased them here at T.G.F Toys.

The children first fish for a number with the tongs and place it on the towel beside the plastic tub... This in itself is a tricky task!

Once they have a number, they can start fishing for the corresponding amount of clownfish... Using the tongs is such a great way to practice their small motor skills and eye-hand coordination. The smaller children may even need to use two hands to navigate the tongs... The children are always so pleased with themselves when they catch a fish!

They can practice one to one correspondence while they drop each fish on the towel, counting them as they drop. You can also help them work out how many more fish they will need to complete their task. Once they have all their fish caught and on the towel, have them count each fish. It is important that they touch each fish as they count it, reinforcing the point that the object corresponds with the number they are saying aloud. When I could tell the smalls were tiring of the fishing and counting expedition, I allowed them time to freely play with the fish and the numbers as they pleased. When learning becomes frustrating, we turn to playing...after all, these kids are just 3 and 4 years old! They have lots of time to learn and grow!

*You may have notice I added a little pitcher for pouring and scooping. This was added to the list of materials needed simply as an option for free play.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy counting!
~Arlee, Small Potatoes

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1 Fish, 2 Fish, 3 Fish, Clownfish! A One to One Correspondence Counting Game for Small Children...

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"One, two, buckle my shoe..." ~Old English Nursery Rhyme When it comes to counting, children about 2.5 and up begin with memorizing the sequence of numbers; rote counting. As they get older, they will start counting with understanding; rational counting. In order to count with understanding, the smalls need to understand one to one correspondence....

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Matching number names with numerals. Can also be done with number words.

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Bethany from Math Geek Mama is here with our ABCs and 123s letter and math series today with a great active math game - puddle jumping! It's good for all ages and especially for kids who love move around.

Puddle Jump: A Get Up and Move Math Game

Practicing math facts or learning to count and recognize numbers can be challenging for young learners. And it can be tedious and boring if the only way they practice is sitting at a desk doing worksheets. Puddle Jump is a simple game that only takes about five minutes to prep, but gives kids a chance to practice math and get moving at the same time! And one of the best things about this game is that it is highly adaptable for kids of all ages.
This page contains affiliate links. NurtureStore gets commission for purchases via these links.
I got the inspiration for this game from a wonderful little book called by Peggy Kaye. I adapted it for spring because with the wonderful spring showers coming, what kid doesn't love to jump in puddles?

In my game, they get to learn math and "jump in puddles," but without getting wet and muddy.

Materials needed

To set up puddle jump

The first thing you need to do is cut out "puddle" shapes from your blue paper. This does not have to be exact or anything fancy. I simply took a small stack of paper and cut a puddle shape out of several at once to save time.

Once you have a pile of puddles (how many you need will depend on what numbers you are focusing on), write a number on each puddle.

I suggest using a black Sharpie marker and writing nice and big so that it is easy for kids to see and read.

I decided to focus on the numbers 11-20 with my kids (ages 6 and 7), but if you have younger ones you could use simply the numbers 0-5 or 1-10.

Once your puddles are ready, it's time to play!

Playing puddle jump

Lay all the number puddles on the floor or ground so that there is enough room for kids to jump from number to number (we played outside because the weather was nice, but you could play this inside as well, if you have the space).

Also note that it may be helpful to tape the puddles down so that they do not slip or blow away (if you're outside).

To begin, I had my kids take turns jumping from number to number in order, starting from 11 and counting all the way to 20.

This was especially helpful for my son (6) who is working on recognizing the teen numbers.

Then, they can jump back from 20 to 11, saying each number again as they count backwards.

They had so much fun jumping around, I decided to challenge them a bit more.

I told my son to pick a number to stand on. I then called out numbers (not in order) and had him jump to the correct number. Just be mindful as you call out numbers that you are calling a number close enough for them to jump to.

I did the same with my daughter (7), but instead of calling out the number I would call out things like, ""1 more than 16″" and ""2 less than 15."" This allowed her to work on her mental math skills as well as number recognition.

Extensions and variations of puddle jump

Let kids practice skip counting as they jump from puddle to puddle

Call out more difficult addition facts and let kids jump to the answer

With older kids, you can call out multiplication facts and let them jump to the answer

However you set up this game, kids are sure to benefit from the exercise and math practice!
Bethany is the mom behind the blog MathGeekMama.com, a website dedicated to making math fun and engaging while building a strong conceptual understanding of mathematics. Be sure to subscribe to her free email newsletter to get her free ebook, Strategies for Problem Solving, as well as free teaching resources!
ABCs and 123s : fun learning activities for letters and math

All our favourite literacy and math activities, all in one place :: download our ABCs and 123s guide here.

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Puddle Jump: A Get Up and Move Math Game

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Bethany from Math Geek Mama is here with our ABCs and 123s letter and math series today with a great active math game - puddle jumping! It's good for all ages and especially for kids who love move around. Puddle Jump: A Get Up and Move Math Game >>>> Download our ABCs and 123s guide ...

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Matching numerals with quantity

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Learning numbers is super fun with this water balloon basketball game! This move and learn math activity is an excellent way to teach number recognition!

This summer I am joining up with a few of my kid blogger friends to bring you the Summer of Fun Blog Hop. Each month we will be posting activities related to a specific summer theme. This month we are posting water play activities! Check out all of the other posts below.

I think most kids enjoy playing with water balloons and my son is definitely one of them. As a result, we love doing learning activities with water balloons. They definitely up the fun factor of any activity.

This game is very easy to set up and even if you don't have a basketball hoop, you can play it! There are several ways you can change it up to make it work for you.
Materials Needed:

Water balloons

Permanent marker

Dice (we love our large foam dice from Dollar Tree)

Basketball hoop (affiliate)

Setting Up the Water Balloon Game

1. Fill up a bunch of water balloons with water.

2. Write a number 1-6 on each balloon.

Learning Numbers with Water Balloons

I instructed Evan to throw the dice. He loves tossing it into the air as high as he can. Then he checked to see which number was facing up. When we first started using dice for activities, he had to count the dots one by one to determine which number was showing. This is perfect for teaching kids about one to one correspondence. We've played so many games with dice that now he can automatically identify the number represented by the dots.

Once he determined which number the dice landed on, he looked through our bucket of water balloons to find one with that number written on it. He picked up the balloon and then threw it through the basketball hoop.

If you don't have a basketball hoop, you can just have your child throw the water balloon in the air or at another object. If you would like to work on bigger numbers you can include two dice and add the numbers together.

This was a really fun way to spend an evening. My husband even got involved and he and Evan had a blast throwing water balloons in the basketball hoop!
More Summer of Fun Water Play Posts!
Wet vs. Dry : Infant Explorations from Bambini Travel

Making Daisy Soup from Crafty Kids at Home

10 Fantastic Experiments With Water from Planet Smarty Pants

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Learning Numbers with Water Balloon Basketball

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Learning numbers is super fun with this water balloon basketball game! This move and learn math activity is an excellent way to teach number recognition! This summer I am joining up with a few of my kid blogger friends to bring you the Summer of Fun Blog Hop.

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Matching numerals with quantity

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As I continue to work on a HUGE common core math bundle, I can't help but post a few of my class favorites from this year. Here, I made a
counting cookies center. It's pretty simple and my students love it. First, I printed out the cookies on card stock paper and laminated. I spray painted cookie sheets and use them for so many different things in my classroom. For this, I use highlighting tape to section off a tens frame on the cookie sheet. This way, when students are using this center, they are constantly visualizing the numbers within a tens frame.
Students will place the cookies on the correct area of the tens frame. I included a recording sheet for students to cut and glue cookies within a tens frame.

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Common Core Math Centers: Counting Cookies

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As I continue to work on a HUGE common core math bundle, I can't help but post a few of my class favorites from this year. Here, I made a counting cookies center. It's pretty simple and my students love it. First, I printed out the cookies on card stock paper and laminated.

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Matching number words with numerals

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Nichole from You Clever Monkey brings a wonderful freebie to our ABCs and 123s series today - printable number car park mats. Read on to print and play!

Printable car play mats with numbers

Play is always the best way to engage young children in their learning. As an Early Years teacher I'm always for looking at ways to use the interests of my students to provide hands on learning opportunities for them during play.

My kids love their cars and so I've created some number car parking mats to help reinforce their growing understanding of numerals and number words. Our alphabet car park mats have been a popular addition to our literacy centres. These number play mats invite young children to match the numerals on the car to the number words in the car park.

Want some for your children? All the hard work is already done. Simply download our number car park mats and print them out. I printed mine to A3 size and laminated them for repeated use. Add some cars ( affiliate link). I used a washable chalk marker (affiliate link) to write the numbers on our cars. The play mats focus on the numbers from 1-10, but I've also created a mat with decades from 0-90 for children at the next stage in their learning.

Then invite your children to play! These play mats can be used at home or in a classroom.

Want to see more from us? Join our email list!
Nichole is an Australian Early Childhood teacher and mum of three. Her blog you clever monkey is full of playful ideas for use in the classroom and at home. You can find more of her printables here and you'll love her Instagram feed.
ABCs and 123s : fun learning activities for letters and math

All our favourite literacy and math activities, all in one place :: download our ABCs and 123s guide here.

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Printable car play mats with numbers - NurtureStore

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Nichole from You Clever Monkey brings a wonderful freebie to our ABCs and 123s series today - printable number car park mats. Read on to print and play! Play is always the best way to engage young children in their learning.

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Matching numerals with quantity

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Hi, my name is Viviana from Totschooling! I blog about educational activities for toddlers and preschoolers and I have a passion for creating hands-on educational printables. I am very happy to be here today to share these fingerprint counting printables!

Children instinctively count things using their fingers. If we add paint to this "equation", kids can leave fingerprints as they count. The result is a super fun project that combines art and math!

How to use the fingerprint counting printables:

- kids tempera paint or an ink pad (affiliate links)

- Fingerprint Counting Printables

Just pour a little paint in a tray and let your child dip a fingertip into the paint. Following the numbers indicated on the activity, children place the correct number of fingerprints, creating spots on the ladybugs, caterpillars of varying lengths, and petals on flowers. This is great for practicing number recognition and one to one correspondence.

My 3.5 year old daughter tried out this activity and loved it. It was a fun way to practice numbers and she especially enjoyed making the ladybugs. Best of all, we hung the finished product on the wall next to her other paintings and she looks at it periodically and counts the fingerprints again!

If you enjoy this activity, feel free to check out some of my other education printables such as Band-aid Bear letter matching and Goldfish Cracker math printables.
Thanks, Amanda, for the opportunity to share!

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Fingerprint Counting Printables for Spring - Fun Handprint Art

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Hi, my name is Viviana from Totschooling ! I blog about educational activities for toddlers and preschoolers and I have a passion for creating hands-on educational printables. I am very happy to be here today to share these fingerprint counting printables! Children instinctively count things using their fingers.

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Matching numerals with quantity. Can also be done with number words.

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Here is a fun and simple counting activity for children. It's very easy to set up at home or in the classroom, can be designed to suit individual needs and will help children build and consolidate their understanding of identifying numbers and how it's represented using pompoms.
Numbers are everywhere and it isn't until your 3.5 year old toddler points them all out that you realise (haha). Possum has started to recognise that there is a difference between letters and numbers and likes to enthusiastically count to the 'big numbers'. You might remember my previous popular post, which is also a number matching activity.

This activity isn't new, but obviously a really great one for developing your child's familiarity with numbers and what they represent using physical objects. In this case I've kept it incredibly simple, which is often the best way to get your child to learn, right?

Recommended age: 3 years +
(Activity supervision is required on all my activity)
You will need for this simple counting activity for children-

Cupcake liners

Marker

Pompoms or similar

Tongs or tweezers (optional)

Begin by writing a number in each of the cupcake liners. Of course this is a very flexible activity and can be made to suit your individual child and where their learning skills are at. If they are just starting out with learning numbers then you might only have two or three cupcake liners with 1 and 2 written inside. If your child needs to consolidate their understanding and accuracy of representing teen numbers then you can cater to their needs by writing larger numbers inside each of the cupcake liners.

The aim of this activity is for the child to read the number inside each of the cupcake liners and use the pompoms to accurately represent it. I chose to have Possum work with numbers up to 6. This was a great way to see what she knew and if I could challenge her further.
Seriously, this is such a great activity. It was so interesting to watch Possum count out the pompoms and add them to the cupcake liners. I could see if she was able to count correctly, use one to one correspondence and have any understanding of subitising, which is when you automatically recognise a number without having to count it. I found that she knew more than I realised.

So much learning happens when children do this activity. Understanding the order of numbers, subtilising, one to one correspondence and number recognition can all be achieved.

Making mistakes is positive and we certainly learn from them. Children at the early stages of learning to count can make simple errors that completely change their result. If your child makes any errors in counting then you might like to ask them to check their work and see if they can find anything that isn't correct. If they can identify errors then that's wonderful and they should be commended. The next challenge is to see if they can fix them. 😉

This wonderful Maths activity can also double to help children develop their fine motor skills. Having said that, I chose to add tongs after Possum had done the counting activity a few times as I didn't want her focus to be on perfecting her grip on the tongs and the counting become secondary. Of course if you're child is struggling to use tongs you might like them to use tweezers instead or simply give them the challenge of only using their thumb and pointer finger when transferring the pompoms.
There are so many ways you can increase the difficulty with this activity. You can change the numbers written in each of the cupcake liners, as I've spoken about, but for some children, simply mixing up the order of the numbers can open up a great learning opportunity. The above image demonstrates how I set the activity up in such a way that a child can not rely on simply increasing one pompom each time. Instead they have to really know the number and what it means.

Some children might enjoy a 'mystery' type challenge. Which number is hiding in this order? Children then have to consider what information is available to them and consider what they don't have. Possum really loved playing that game.

Can you think of any other ways of playing with this activity?

Some more great ideas -

Follow Kate @ LaughingKidsLearn's board Laughing Kids Learn on Pinterest.

Ebooks available featuring Laughing Kids Learn

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Simple counting activity for children - Laughing Kids Learn

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Here is a fun and simple counting activity for children . It's very easy to set up at home or in the classroom, can be designed to suit individual needs and will help children build and consolidate their understanding of identifying numbers and how it's represented using pompoms. Numbers are everywhere and it isn't until your 3.5 year old toddler points them all out that you realise (haha).

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Matching numerals with quantity. Can also be done with number words.

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Now that we're into August, I'm back into back-to-school planning mode, both as a parent and as a teacher. On the one hand, I'm getting our family's routine back on school time and making sure Engineer's things are organized. On the other hand, I'm planning and prepping for a new group of preschoolers. I love that a trip to Sam's Club let me conquer everything at the same time - getting snacks ready for Engineer, collecting Box Tops for his school, and creating some simple snack math for preschoolers.

Are you following Fun-A-Day's Math Pinterest board?

Snack math for preschoolers is sponsored by General Mills®. All opinions and comments are, as always, mine.

a shopping trip with box tops for education

Heading into Sam's Club, we knew we wanted to grab some Cheerios™, Cinnamon Toast Crunch™, and Mott's™ Fruit Snacks. I loved that each of these items came with extra Box Tops for Education that we could use towards Engineer's school. I wasn't the best about sending in Box Tops last year, but I plan to be this year. So I figure I'm off to a great start!

If you're not sure what Box Tops are, here's a quick run-down:

Clip off the box tops (they're found on hundreds of different items).

Send the box tops in to your child's school (over 80,000 K-8 schools participate).

Your child's school receives ten cents per box top.

Having worked in public schools before teaching preschool, I know every little bit helps! Teachers often use their own money to purchase items for their students and classrooms, and this is one small way I can help out. Even better, when I grab items from Sam's Club, there are more box tops to share with my son's school! In fact, last year Sam's Club members earned over a million dollars for their local schools! How awesome is that?

easy snack math for preschoolers

Once we brought all of our goodies home, I decided to put together an easy math activity for my preschool class. I've noticed that my students do something like this with their snacks half the time anyway (they often count and sort their snacks during snack time)! So why not help them make the connection between counting and numbers?

These easy number-quantity cards allow the kids to count out their snacks. This helps them with one-to-one correspondence, a very important early math skill. I'm going to print out a few sets of the cards, laminate them, and place them in our math center. They'll be easy to pull out during snack time if kids are interested, and they can be used with other materials as well. You can find a free copy of snack math, numbers 1 to 10, HERE (by clicking, you're agreeing to my terms of use).

Would your students enjoy the snack math for preschoolers? Be sure to pop over and print off some free Box Tops for Education collection sheets - they'll make it easier to gather and send those Box Tops into school!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of General Mills® . The opinions and text are all mine.

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Snack Math for Preschoolers with Box Tops for Education - Fun-A-Day!

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Now that we're into August, I'm back into back-to-school planning mode, both as a parent and as a teacher. On the one hand, I'm getting our family's routine back on school time and making sure Engineer's things are organized. On the other hand, I'm planning and prepping for a new group of preschoolers.

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Matching number names with numerals, and numerals with quantity.

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This counting game is fun way to practice number recognition and one to one correspondence and because it's a game it will really appeal to preschoolers.

The game is so simple and easy to set up and can be done with guidance or independently. Evan loves when I turn things into games and this one was a real treat due to the smacking aspect of it. Don't be fooled by the fun and simplicity though. When playing this game lots of skills are being reinforced.

After showing Evan how to play and completing a few rounds with him, he was able to do this on his own for a tiny bit. He does get distracted and starts smacking everything with the swatter, so I tend to stay close by and remind him how we play the game. If you can't leave your child to do things like this independently, that is totally normal. Some kids are more inclined to work with little supervision and others need to be kept on task a bit. I don't force him to do any of these activities, but sometimes a reminder is what he needs to refocus.
Materials Needed:
Dice

Fly swatter

Sticky notes or just paper with the numbers written on it

All my materials were bought at the dollar store and can be used over and over again for other activities.
Activity Prep:
All you have to do is write the numbers on the sticky notes and place on your work surface.
Activity Details:
The child will roll the die and identify which number is facing up. Evan was able to identify numbers 1-3 immediately upon seeing it, but for numbers 4-6 he needed to count the dots to know which number was rolled. You can also use a set of dice and work on numbers from 7-12.

Then he needed to identify the sticky note with the corresponding number and smack it with the swatter. I instructed him to swat the number the same amount of times the number represents. For instance, if he rolled 3, he would swat that sticky note 3 times. However, he was having way too much fun with the swatting and just kept going. Often swatting each number 6 or 7 times. So if you can get your child to do this, great. If not, that's totally normal. The swatting is just too much fun!

For more activities like this, check out my Preschool Math Activities board on Pinterest!

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This counting game is fun way to practice number recognition and one to one correspondence and because it's a game it will really appeal to preschoolers. The game is so simple and easy to set up and can be done with guidance or independently.