Teaching math seems overwhelming… but it can actually be really fun! Especially in preschool, math activities can be fun, hands on, and easy to implement at home.
Here are some fun and FREE preschool math activities that will help foster a love for all things math!
Preschool Math Activities for Counting
Knowing how to count seems like an obvious starting point when it comes to raising mathematicians.
However, counting is a tough skill for some kids to grasp!
Slowing down and taking the time to teach counting correctly, will give your children mathematical confidence galore.
Simple Application: Anytime there’s an opportunity to count; Take it! Learning will be solidified even further if your child can actually touch what they are counting. For example, counting and moving blocks, stuffed animals, or Cheerios.
Preschool Math Activities for Shapes
When it comes to teaching shapes, repetition is vital. Luckily, shapes are EVERYWHERE, so they’re easy to reinforce.
We can help them better understand shapes by counting sides or having them draw shapes. Shape magnets are a staple at our house. My boys could spend HOURS building with them.
Simple Application: Next time you’re at the park, ask your child to find as many circles, rectangles, squares, etc. as they can.
Preschool Math Activities for Patterns
When children learn to recognize patterns, this does not only help them become better mathematicians, it also helps them to become better overall learners.
You can help them recognize patterns in math by creating simple ABA, ABC, or ABBA patterns. Use a variety of concepts to demonstrate these patterns; colors, shapes, letters, animals etc.
Helping your children identify even seemingly, simple patterns is huge! For example, they may identify rhyming words as patterns or colors on their favorite toy as having patterns.
Simple Application: Grab a box of crayons and a piece of paper. Make a pattern that repeats at least two times. Have your child complete/repeat the pattern independently.
Preschool Math Activities for Greater Than, Less Than
Simple ideas, such as ‘greater than’ and ‘less than’ are often overlooked when teaching math concepts. The wonderful thing about this idea, is that it’s SO easy to teach!
Children have to have a basic understanding of how numbers, quantities, lengths, heights, etc can be larger or smaller than one another, comparatively.
This understanding will set the stage for a strong number sense later in life. They will be able to recognize that adding numbers together should make larger numbers, while subtracting numbers from one another should make smaller numbers.
Simple Application: During snack time give your child less goldfish than yourself. Ask them; “Who has the greater/lesser amount of goldfish?” You may have to explain the word ‘greater’ means ‘more,’ and ‘lesser’ means ‘not as many.’
Preschool Math Activities for Simple Addition and Subtraction
Once your child has a firm grasp on counting, you can actually begin introducing simple addition and subtraction problems.
The number one thing to remember when practicing this concept, is to KEEP IT CONCRETE!
Always, always have some type of manipulative handy to reiterate what you are teaching!
So, help them REALLY understand what they are doing by writing out the number sentence AND using manipulatives (blocks, snacks, small toys, etc.)
Simple Application: Write out a few addition and subtraction problems on a sheet of paper, have your children demonstrate the problem using a small snack.
The fun thing about using snacks, is that they can actually eat their snack when demonstrating subtraction!
Preschool Math Activities At Home
If you want even more ideas for teaching math… and even MORE, I have a FREE no-prep preschool activity guide for you!
This fun guide gives you 140 ideas for how to engage your preschool child at home with activities that help them develop math, reading, sensory, and other skills.
All activities use items you have at home, so prep is SUPER simple. Nothing to print and nothing complicated to set up.
Grab your set here and enjoy helping your child grow!
