early math skills
simple math activities for kids
Simple
Keep it simple! These math activities for kids are all simple ways to introduce important early math concepts.
Effective
Not only are these math activities simple but they are also really effective and versatile.
fun
Math can be so much fun! These math activities are a blast and will have your child begging for more!
list of early math skills
View our Math & More page to read more about the importance of math and the see a list of the early math skills your child should master by age 6.
purposeful math
Way up High in the Apple Tree
Cut out or print 10 tree patterns.
Write the numbers 1-10 on pieces of paper. Each number on a separate piece.
Gather apple counters, different colored pom-poms, buttons or anything else that could be used to represent apples.
I really love these Attribute Apples from Learning Resources
Lay out the tree, add a number to it and ask your child to add the appropriate corresponding number of “apples”.
Example: Place the number 5 on the tree. Invite your child to add 5 apples to the tree.
materials
10 tree cutouts
number cards 1-10
apple counters or pom-poms in different sizes and colors
Purpose
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Counting
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One to one correspondence
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Number recognition
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Classification
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Beginning operations
Variations
Instead of using numbers, ask your child to sort the apples by color. Designate each tree for a different color. Example: one tree for all the green apples, another tree for all the red apples and so on.
If you have different sized apples you can designate the trees by size instead of numbers. Assign a tree for the large apples, a tree for the medium apples and a tree for the small apples. Have your child then sort the apples accordingly.
Practice beginning subtraction. After your child has added the appropriate number of apples onto the tree, remove one the apples. Ask your child how many apples are on the tree now. Continue to do this until all the apples are gone. You can do the same with addition.
Sing the song Way up High in the Apple Tree. Start with 10 apples in the tree. As you sing the song continue removing apples in accordance with the song lyrics. Have your child pretend to “shake the tree” as you sing along.
Learning Resources Attribute Apples
I really love these Attribute Apples from Learning Resources. Attribute Apples are absolutely perfect to use with this activity! They are so versatile and can be used to help your child master many of the early math skills needed by 1st grade! You can use these apples to sort by size, color, with/without leaf, with/without worm. You can also use this set to practice graphing skills, patterns, as well as addition and subtraction.
purposeful math
High to Low
This activity is really simple and can be done with any objects that have several different sizes. The purpose of High to Low is teach your child how to arrange objects in a logical order.
I really love Melissa and Doug’s Stack and Sort Board for teaching this concept. Scroll down to see more information!
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Ask your child to arrange the objects by size from shortest to tallest
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After they have lined up the objects-ask your child which object is shortest, which is the second shortest, third and so on.
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Next have them arrange objects from tallest to shortest.
Ask them which one is the tallest, the 2nd tallest and so on.
materials
objects in varying sizes
Purpose
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Comparing
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Classification
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Arrangement
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Spatial sense
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Shape knowledge
Melissa and Doug Stack and Sort Board
This Stack and Sort Board from Melissa and Doug is such a fun and versatile way to teach many of the important early math skills. This board works great for the High to Low activity. You can also use this to teach math shapes, counting and colors. Kids can also use these shapes to build with!
Learning Resources Mathlink Cubes
These Mathlink Cubes from Learning Resources are perfect for teaching many early childhood math skills, including order and classification. These links work really well for High to Low as you can make the towers as tall or as short as you would like. Mathlink Cubes are so versatile!
purposeful math
math fun with counters
Choose counters that your child would enjoy. Counters are available in many different designs including-Apples, Dinosaurs, Bugs, Sea Creatures, Bears and Vehicles.
Choose counters that come in both size and color variations.
See below for suggestions and links to my favorite counter kits!
Once you have your counters the activities you can do with them are endless! Here are a few suggestions.
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Sort by color.
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Sort by size.
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Sort by size AND color (example: All large red bears together, all medium red bears together, all small red bears together).
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GRAPH your counters. Create a graph, give your child a handful of counters and have them graph accordingly.
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Create patterns.
materials
counters of your choice
graph
Purpose
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Counting
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One to one correspondence
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Number recognition
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Classification
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Graphing
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Patterns
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Beginning operations
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Comparing
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Data analysis
early math skills
Three Awesome Counters for Math
Here are three really great options for counters to use with your child to teach early math skills. These counters are a lot of fun and can be used for so many different math activities for kids! They are really colorful and very versatile. You can teach nearly all the early math skills your child will need to master with just one of these counter sets!
purposeful play
patterns
Teaching patterns to kids is not only really fun but it is also an essential early math skill for children to master.
Patterns are an critical part of building a solid math foundation during the early childhood years.
Patterns can be created using basically anything! You can make patterns with crayons, blocks, play cars, buttons, markers-pretty much anything you can find around the house!
early math skills
Examples of Patterns
Start with the ABAB pattern. (Example: red block-blue block-red block-blue block)
Create the pattern, describe it to your child and ask your child what would come next in the pattern.
Continue with this until your child has mastered extending the ABAB patterns you create.
Once your child has mastered extending patterns, they are ready to create patterns on their own.
First create a pattern and have them recreate it on their own.
After they are able to recreate a pattern you have created, invite them to create their own ABAB pattern.
When they have mastered creating the ABAB pattern on their own, move on to more complicated patterns.
Try ABBABB pattern (Example: blue block, red block, red block, blue block, red block, red block)
Try ABCABC pattern and AABAAB pattern.
After your child has mastered those four patterns, you can start to get really complicated! For example you could try ABBCDABBCD, or AAABCAAABC. The sky is the limit on this!
puorposeful play
Activity sets for making patterns
These are three of the best activity sets I've used in my classroom as well as at home. What do I love about these sets?
- The colors are bright and fun! Children are always drawn towards them!
- These sets make is really easy to create your own patterns to use with your child.
- They come with their own pattern cards which makes is excellent for independent learning.
- Really versatile-you can use these sets to teach all the early math skills your child needs to master by 1st grade!
