Number Sense Activities
These number sense activities are suitable for kids in preschool or kindergarten. They help kids learn about numbers up to twenty and make a great addition to math centers.
The following activities feature a cute “sweet treats” theme and help kids learn to count, read, write and represent numbers up to twenty.
Sweet Treat Math Centers
I’ve found kids love talking about numbers in relation to topics such as their birthday or “how old” they are. This observation is what inspired me to create the following math centers.
BIRTHDAY THEMED NUMBER MATS
Preparation – Print and laminate the cake math mats for added durability. Then grab some birthday candles or cut up straws for pretend candles.
How To Play – Help kids read the number on the mat. Then they need to count out that amount of candles to place on the cake. Encourage kids to place them in a line to make counting easier. I ask them to touch each candle as they count “slowly” and then tell me “how many” candles there are. One of the counting mats also allows kids to use an erasable marker to write the numbers.
NUMBER SENSE MATS
Preparation – Print and laminate the resources for added durability.
How To Play – Kids need to read and write the number. Then they have to represent that number in different ways by tallying it, dotting it on the ten frames and building it with connecting cubes. The building activity helps kids to develop the concept of “tens” and “ones” in teen numbers.
NUMBER SENSE COOKIE JARS
Preparation – Print and laminate the resources for added durability. Cut out the cookies. I just left the cookies as a square to save on cutting time.
How To Play – Lay out a few cookie jars with numbers that you’d like the kids to work on, such as 10 to 15. Then scatter the cookies for those particular jars nearby. The kids need to pick up a cookie and determine “how many” there are. Then they have to place the cookie on the corresponding jar. These cookies feature numbers represented in different ways such as tallies, ten frames, dice and base ten blocks.
FINE MOTOR COUNTING MATS
Preparation – Print and laminate the mats for added durability. Grab some small sized pom poms (to be the sprinkles) and some tweezers or tongs.
How To Play – Kids need to read the number and then count that amount onto the cookie jar. Encourage the kids to pick up the pom poms using tweezers, to help develop their fine motor skills. If you don’t want to use the number cards, the kids can use an erasable marker to write the number in the box instead.
Preparation – Print and laminate the number mats for added durability. Then grab some erasable markers. Washable markers wipe off easily with a damp cloth.
How To Play – Kids need to read the number and then trace it with an erasable marker. There is room on each mat for the kids to have a go at writing the number on their own. After that they need to place that amount of dots on the ten frame, to represent that number.
You can grab these sweet treat math centers here.
This pack includes some other math centers too (not shown here).
FREE Number Sense Puzzles
Preparation – Print and laminate the puzzles for added durability. Then cut along the dotted lines to separate the puzzle pieces.
How To Play – Scatter the puzzle pieces on a table. Just put out the numbers you want the kids to focus on such as 0 to 10. The kids have to count the number of objects on the puzzle piece and match it to the corresponding number.
You can grab your set of free puzzles below from my TpT store. The sweet treats math centers pack contains some additional popsicle number puzzles with the numbers and number words.
