Preschool Math Activities

Preschool Math Activities

Preschool is a great time to introduce math concepts to your child. It is during these years that he will learn math and reading basics. Introducing preschool math activities to your child will make learning fun. Keep in mind that most children learn by hands on activities. Free printable math worksheets can also come in handy for teaching lessons.

Counting

Begin with counting. Your child needs to know his numbers before you can start introducing preschool math activities. Count everything! Stairs, M & M’s, movies, cars, toys, and chicken nuggets are fun to count.

Do not expect your child to get it perfect right away. Start counting to 5 and gradually add numbers. Even when your child only can count to 3, keep counting on your own. Once your child can count to ten, begin introducing other preschool math activities.

Playing simple board games with spaces is another fun way to work on math. As he moves his piece around the board, he is counting. Once he masters this, you can teach him to add two dice together. This will give him a great visual to see what 2 plus 3 looks like.

Don't forget to introduce writing numbers as well and teach him to identify the number with a visual.

Shapes

Learning shapes is an introduction to geometry. Your child begins learning math without realizing it as he identifies different shapes. Start with just a circle, triangle and square. Once he masters the basic shapes, you can begin teaching other shapes. By the end of preschool, your child should be able to recognize:

• Star
• Heart
• Diamond
• Pentagon
• Rectangle
• Oval
• Triangle
• Circle
• Square

Work with finding shapes in everyday life. Fun preschool math activities introducing shapes include:

• Pick a shape of the week, and look for it in everyday objects. For example, a door is a rectangle, and an orange is a circle.
• Worksheets, which can be found at TLS Books
• Take household objects and sort them by shape.
• Create art work using different shape. Have your child practice drawing shapes.

More or Less

At preschool age, your child will recognize if his friend Matt has more marshmallows than he does. Identifying more or less are great preschool math activities. Some examples of fun activities include:

• Take paperclips, blocks, or cotton balls and create two piles. Have your child identify which pile has more. Next, ask him which pile has less.

• Create a pile of items in front of you. Ask your child to make another pile that contains more than you have.

Everyday toys are perfect for teaching math activities.

You can also work on identifying “bigger” and “smaller.” Begin with items that are obvious, such as your car and a bike. As he begins to identify this concept, you can use items that are closer in size, like toys or brownies cut into different sizes.

Addition

Your preschooler can do simple addition. Use different manipulative, or hands on objects, to encourage preschool math activities. Plastic beads work perfectly. As you are creating simple addition problems, write the equation down on a piece of paper or dry erase board. Use number stories to put addition into context:

• Mary had two stickers. When she went to see the doctor, he gave her one more. How many stickers does Mary have now?

As you tell the story, act it out using stickers, and let your child count the manipulatives to come to the correct answer.

Cooking and Baking

The best preschool math activities happen in the kitchen. Cooking involves math and teaches your child how math is used everyday. Though your child may be too young to measure on his own, you can still mark the line in the measuring cup and have him pour. Count teaspoons, cups of water, and even how many chocolate chips you add.

After you are done cooking, use meal time to introduce fractions. If you baked a cake, show how you cut it in half, then into fourths and so on. This is a great way to show how fractions work.

Remember to keep math fun. Take advantage of everyday activities to work on counting, shapes, and simple addition. You should also begin to introduce patterns at this age and help your child predict which comes next.