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Ditch the workbooks and printables! Teach counting, math facts, and more with these hands-on preschool math activities.
My youngest is a workbook kind of kid. She loves workbooks and printables and other paper and pencil activities. My son, however, hates having to pick up a pencil. He would much rather use his hands to learn.
If you’ve got a hands-on learner, you’re going to love this amazing collection of hands-on math activities for preschoolers.
Even if you have a paper-and-pencil kid like me, you can use these ideas to reinforce math concepts.
Hands-On Preschool Math
Hands-On Fall Patterns
Learning patterns at an early age builds predicting, observation and analyzing skills. Try this simple fall patterns preschool activity!
Toddler Pattern Sort and Drop Game
Tots and preschoolers will work on early math and fine motor skills with this homemade pattern sort and drop game.
Hickory Dickory Dock Activity for Toddlers
Add this Hickory Dickory Dock matching clothespins activity to your nursery rhyme studies. Little ones will focus on fine motor skills, number and color matching, and learning to tell time (for older preschoolers).
Clothespin Math Activities & Games
Introduce your preschoolers to geometry by having them create shapes with clothespins.
Counting Falling Stars
Little ones will work on counting skills and number recognition in this hands-on Counting Falling Stars activity.
Teach Preschool with Kitchen Math
Preschoolers adore baking, cooking, and mixing up a batch of cookies to eat. This makes kitchen math perfect for this age group!
Skip Counting Lacing Plates
Little ones will work on hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, number recognition, and skip counting as they lace these skip counting lacing plates.
Counting Math Game for Kids
Your preschoolers will practice one-to-one correspondence as they complete this Roll & Count Math Game.
Cinderella Inspired Sorting Activity
This isn’t make-believe. Preschoolers can really turn into Cinderella as they try on shoes and sort them by size.
Have Fun Practicing Math Facts
Your child can have fun practicing math facts with a simple beach ball. There are many ways to adapt this activity to fit your current math theme.
6 Simple Domino Math Ideas
Do your kids love dominos? This age old toy has been enjoyed by generations for competitive games of play, but the truth is you can also use dominos to teach kids math as well!
Patterning With Colorful Dots Preschool Math Activity
Practice patterning with red cups and colored dots.
The Golden Ratio in the Garden
Whether your students understand “golden ratio” or not, they can still go on a garden scavenger hunt to find shapes in the garden.
DIY Butterfly Number Stones
These DIY butterfly number stones are a great hands-on way to get preschoolers to practice number recognition and counting.
Nature math activities
Explore these nature math activities that will make your kids love learning how to measure things.
How to Teach Math with Race Cars
Do your kids love math? Maybe not. But do they love race cars? Probably so! Discover how you can use race cars to teach math, so you can make the most of these little toys while teaching some important skills at the same time!
DIY Counting with Cardboard Game
Recycle cardboard boxes for this DIY Counting with Cardboard Game for preschoolers.
Math Fraction Art Project
Introduce young learners to fractions with a hands-on math fraction art project.
Play Dough Subtraction Smash
Even if your preschoolers aren’t ready to learn their math facts, you can introduce them to the concept of subtraction by playing Playdough Subtraction Smash with them. You could even tweak this to practice number recognition and counting if that is where your kiddos are.
Sidewalk Chalk Outdoor Math Game
Wherever you are in math with your kiddos, you can reinforce those skills by building an outdoor math game board focusing on the skills you’re working on right now or to review previous skills.
COUNTING with dice
How about doing math you can eat? You can practice counting and one-to-one correspondence with dice and blueberries (or grapes, raisins, etc.)
Water Squirter Math Game
Water squirter math games are easily adapted to work on various math skills and will keep kids cool (and learning) on a hot summer day.
Bottle Cap Low Prep Math Game
This low-prep math game is a great way to practice number recognition with your hands-on preschoolers.
Water Squirter Math Game
Water squirter math games are easily adapted to work on various math skills and will keep kids cool (and learning) on a hot summer day.
Learn Place Value with Building Blocks
Older preschoolers and kindergarteners can learn about place value with building blocks with this hands-on approach.
Practice Counting On in Nature
Learning to count on sets the stage for learning to add and subtract. Here’s a fun way to practice counting on in nature.
Number Matching Race
Little ones can burn off some energy while they work on number recognition with a backyard number matching race.
Strawberry Math Sensory Bin
For your preschool strawberry theme create a strawberry math sensory bin. Work on number recognition, counting, and one-to-one correspondence.
Counting Spider Eyes
Practice counting to ten with this “Counting Spooky Spider Eyes” hands-on spider math activity. Perfect for preschool Halloween and spider units.
Gross Motor: Number Recognition Play
Grab your sidewalk chalk and prep this number recognition activity that is both fun and educational.
Hands On Gem Patterns
Gather up some colored gems or buttons (or grab some on your next trip to the dollar store), and let your preschoolers practice making patterns.
With so many fun hands-on activities for teaching and reinforcing preschool math skills, how will you choose which one to do first?
PRESCHOOL BOOKS ABOUT COUNTING
Fill your book basket with a great collection of counting books. Most of these books can be found at your local library or used bookstore. If you have a hard time finding them, you can order them through my Amazon affiliate links by clicking the images below.
Ten Black Dots – One dot can make a sun, two dots can make the eyes of a fox, and three dots can make a snowman’s face. And that’s just the beginning in this unique counting book! Count the Animals – There are several types of puzzles in the book; some focus on counting a particular animal, some on a common attribute (i.e. all the animals with tails), while a number of puzzles ask you to count two sets of animals to see which outnumbers the other. Curious George Counts From 1 to 100 – Curious George is a good little monkey, and always very curious. Now George is curious about numbers. Counting from 1 to 10 is easy, but can he count all the way to 100? George has picked the perfect day to try. It’s his town’s 100th birthday today and everyone is coming out to celebrate!
Teaching Resources
This wooden number tracing board is perfect for toddlers and preschoolers. Trace with your finger, fill with sensory items, practice counting or simply play… there are so many ways to encourage number recognition with this number board! Wooden number coins are an ideal open-ended toy for toddlers & preschoolers. Encourage your child to learn numbers and counting through play-based learning. Each set contains 21 coins – one for each number from 0-20.More Preschool Math Fun
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Manipulatives are the way I learned math easier when I was a kid.