Try these 10 Free Number Mats to teach the numbers 1-10 in five hands-on, super fun ways.
When teaching my kindergartners numbers 1 through 10, I wanted them make the connection between the number and the quantity AND help teach them how to recognize and write the number.
Bonus points for making it fun... So I made these number mats for them and thought you could use them too!
These hands-on number mats teach each number through:
So much learning is happening just by playing to learn with just one number mat.
The common core math standards we hit are:
After printing your number mats, I highly recommend laminating them. My secret weapon is an AmazonBasics laminator that creates a thick, durable lamination for teaching resources I plan to use a lot!
Another option is to use a simple plastic page protector, but those are harder to erase. You can also print them out as single-use printables if you're in a rush.
These number mats are hands-on, so instead of just writing on them, kids are invited to use objects to really engage with each number. We use Play-doh to shape the number, so I love the laminated mats because the dough comes off easily.
Some supplies you might want to have are:
When learning numbers for the first time, kids are already receiving a lot of new input. At the very young age of 3-6 we expect them to memorize all these squiggles and lines, 26 letters- capital and lowercase plus numbers 1-20 in kindergarten. It's a lot!
Repetition is one part of the puzzle. In order to memorize a new number, kids need a ton of exposures to that specific digit. These exposures must be memorable! So a worksheet won't cut it.
The number mats I'm sharing with you are exciting for my students because they get to work with preferred objects, manipulatives, and use their minds in multiple ways while they work!
They're interacting with each number many times making it easier to remember:
I've said it once and I'll say it again, hands-on experiences are worth 1000 times more than a worksheet a child will do and forget by snack time.
My students LOVE these number mats, and they even ask to do them over and over again solidifying their knowledge and practicing their number sense as well as number identification skills.
I'm sure you're working on letters as well. You don't want to miss these alphabet mats the kids go gaga for!
Rote counting is saying numbers in sequence. What it's not: counting any quantities or objects.
Before learning to count quantities, otherwise known as counting with one to one correspondence, children must memorize the order of numbers and be able to say them correctly in sequence: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on. That is called rote counting!
There are so many engaging ways to learn the numbers in sequence, some through music and games and others through the actual counting of objects in everyday life. Try these rote counting activities while having fun playing with your child.
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Knowing the order of numbers is essential before you are to count objects accurately or do any type of arithmetic. Think about it, in order to add 3 to 2, you need to know what numbers comes next when you first count to 3, then add the 2, and then finally count the sum.
Rote counting is a skill that develops in older grades as we ask children to count from numbers other than 1, find the the numbers that come after, or add by counting on.
Skip counting is also a form of rote counting where children memorize the sequence of numbers based on a pattern like multiples of 2's or 10's.
Children as young as 2 begin rote counting numbers to around 5. In preschool, children learn to rote count to 10 and often 20. In kindergarten children learn how to rote count to 100.
Yes, modeling rote counting helps children memorize the numbers. Much like a new song, it takes our minds time to remember the lyrics. Soon rote counting will be so automatic for them, they'll need to slow down!
Most activities are strictly about rote counting. A few at the end incorporate the next step in counting which is beginning to count objects and number recognition.
This classic game involves rote counting. Whomever is chosen as the seeker counts to a certain number before shouting, "Ready or not?! Here I come!" Is your child learning how to rote count to 10? 15? 20? Play "Hide and Seek" and make that the number the seeker counts to each time.
There are so many children's songs that include rote counting. Here are a few with links to their Youtube videos if you're not familiar:
The Ants Go Marching
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Once I caught a fish alive!
Using a deck of cards, remove all the face cards. Have your child flip over a card and count up to that number. This is great for preschoolers counting to 10, but you can play it by including higher number flashcards. Not only will this improve rote counting skills but it'll also help kids with number recognition too!
Is it just me, or do my kids listen better to Alexa than when I give a direction? Use that to your advantage, and ask them to have Alexa (or any other house robot item) count up to a certain number. They can listen as she models the rote counting or join in on the count. It's too easy!
When my fitness instructor says, "We are going to be doing planks for a whole minute," you know I'm counting every last second. Whether it's jogging to the end of the block or holding a tricky yoga pose- rote count to 20 or higher with your child as you're working out!
There are so many rote counting books out there. While you're reading the pages, your child will get to become familiar with the order of the numbers but also see the numbers many times, helping with number recognition. You can even count the objects on each page, which is not rote counting, but the next step in math skills.
Some of my favorites include:
Hippos Go Berserk by Sandra Boynton
Ten Apples Up on Top! by Dr. Seuss
Chicka Chicka 1,2,3 by Bill Martin Jr.
Using a large ball that your littles find easy to catch, try to pass it back and forth without dropping it to the ground. Count while you're passing the ball. If you count one number for each successful ball you're practicing rote counting and counting with one to one correspondence at the same time.
A way to do this as a rote counting activity would be to have your child repeat the number you say back to you, to help cement the order of new numbers: 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, and so forth.
Do you have a calendar in your home? For us it's where I write all the special events (usually with a picture)so that my kids get excited and know how to "read" it. Each day we take a second to look at the calendar, usually during a meal.
If you have a calendar, notice the date with your child and practice rote counting up to that number. Even if you're the only one counting, hearing the sequence of numbers daily is powerful learning!
This is a great boredom buster for times when you have a few minutes to spare. Pick a target number to count up to. Take turns creating a movement pattern to do to the beat of the counting. For example, stomp, stomp, clap, clap. As you do each movement count one number more until you rote count to the target number. Take turns choosing the pattern; kids love to be the leader!
You don't need to wait until Halloween to play this rote counting game. Use a new voice to count to 20 and have the other person guess who you are pretending to be. Are you a baby, Dracula, a fancy lady, a mouse, Peppa Pig?
How long can you balance on one foot? Rote count as you challenge each other not to topple over while balancing on one foot!
My kids have loved bubbles for always. In this bubbly rote counting activity, blow some bubbles. Pick one to follow and count how long until it pops! You can focus on the same bubble or make it competitive by choosing different bubbles. Remember to count together. How long did it take for your bubble to pop?
Usually I don't include screen activities, but I picked this toy up at a clothing and toy swap years ago, and I'm so glad I did. The phone has multiple rote counting songs as well as little animations for the numbers 1-9. I definitely need to give it some credit for my kids' love of numbers and counting.
Parents, snack is almost always a preferred activity for kids, so let's make it work for us. Have them count their snacks! With this simple set-up my kids were practicing rote counting, counting with one to one correspondence, and number recognition. It's one of the most favorite activities from our Fun Club activities
General rule: kids love stickers. Peeling stickers is also a great fine motor activity. On a piece of paper (or really anything) write a few numbers your child is working on recognizing. Divide up the spaces and have them put that number of stickers in each section. This activity will build rote counting skills as well as number sense and help kids count accurately.
How do we get kids excited about numbers and counting? Let them choose what they count. Counting collections are a great way to help kids learn to count up to very high numbers, like in this activity where we counted to 100. But you can count smaller quantities too.
Let's get all their favorites: race cars, stuffed animals, dinosaurs, construction trucks, fairies, etc. Count your collection to practice SO many math skills.
This is a fun rote counting activity for any time of day if you've got stairs in your home. I've found my children naturally count the steps as they go up and down them. You can walk up the stairs, crawl up the stairs, or march, just make sure to hold the railing!
I'm really big into doing sensory bins with my children (3-5 years old). Our favorite kinds of tools are scoopers and bottles. Have your children scoop and transfer whatever your bin is filled with and count how many scoops were needed to fill the container. Counting scoops of any kind is lots of fun, plus it's soothing!
Have you ever seen one of these? I made it with a shoe box, cutting out a holes for anima mouths. I haven't thrown it away after years because my kids still love to play "Feed the animals" with pom poms. They gather their colorful pom poms and count as they stuff them through the little hole. Again this activity involves saying the numbers in order but also involves counting objects too, so it's not solely a rote counting activity.
Play anywhere and any time, it's super easy. Pick two spots in your home (or wherever). How many steps will it take to get you from one spot to the other? How many will it take your partner? Now how many will it take if you do giants leaps? Baby steps? You can even challenge each other to only get from point A to point B in a certain number of steps. This activity is counting but is a little more advanced because children must be able to count accurately!
Rote counting is the most basic math skills that is essential for children to be able to do before most other math skills. Try any of these rote activities to help your child learn the basics while also having fun!
Does your young child have 1 to 1 correspondence? If they don't, they may count objects too fast and accidentally skip over items or count the same one twice.
The 1 to 1 correspondence definition is counting one number for every object counted. Simple put, it's counting accurately.
One to one correspondence develops for numbers under 5 in the preschool years and by the end of kindergarten, kids are expected to accurately count up to 20 objects.
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2. Dry Erase Foam Dice- These dry erase dice allow me to put what I want to on each side. For my 2 year old who only knows numbers up till 3, I wanted to reinforce those numbers only. This would also make it easier for her to count with one to one correspondence. On each side, I wrote 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, and 3. You can personalize it however you want! We even use them to add an element of surprise to chores and so many other ways.
3. Two toys of the kids' choosing, could be anything!
Making the board game together will be a great opportunity for practicing 1 to 1 correspondence.
We chose to have two separate tracks, but really you can make a board that all players use!
When making two seperate tracks, it was important that both players had the same number of Magna-tiles, or the game wouldn't be fair. This led us to deciding a certain number and counting that many squares together.
For counting larger numbers, it is important that children move each piece as they count one more in order to keep track.
Lil Sis (2.5 years) doesn't yet have 1 to 1 correspondence so I tried these methods to help her better understand:
From beginning to end, she did begin counting with greater accuracy, and as we played again and again, she understood much more.
Kids make a lot of mistakes while rote counting, meaning they're just saying the sequence of numbers they've memorized. In a game, the numbers translate to movements on the board.
By actually having to move each piece only that amount, kids are more focused on counting slowly, leading to greater accuracy.
When kids are counting groups of objects by sight or just by pointing to each item (this happens often in number books when there are no actual manipulatives to move) they more easily lose track of the number of objects.
Giving children manipulatives (actual objects) and asking them to physically pick up and move each item will develop the 1 to 1 correspondence concept that every number said stands for one more item.
To sum it up, help your child develop 1 to 1 correspondence by making sure:
An excellent 1 to 1 correspondence activity that makes sure to do all these things is Dot Sticker Phone Numbers.
Leave a comment below to let me know how you practice 1 to 1 correspondence with your child!
For the 100th day of our Covid-19 quarantine kindergarten, my kids and I created counting collections of 100 items.
As part of kindergarten standard K.CC.A.1 in the US kids must count to 100 by ones and tens. The 100th day of school is the perfect time to practice counting to 100 and to create student led counting collections that expand kids number sense and challenge them to count higher than they have before!
A counting collection is any number of objects that you count out and put together. It can be a collection of a specific kind of object, or it can be different sets of objects.
You can start with a number in mind, like we did with counting to 100, or you can work towards discovering how many of an object you have.
In order to be successful completing a counting collection, kids will have to keep track of what they counted and count orally with one to one correspondence.
Kids of any age can participate in counting collections, as there is no specific end number. Create a collection of 20, 50, 100, or more!
One hundred is a BIG number so for a counting collection to work, children must have a way of keeping track of what they have counted. This could be through providing a pen and paper or creating a system to separated counted from uncounted objects.
Though kids usually come up with their own systems, we used a ten frame because it was my oldest child's first time counting to 100, and a ten frame is a great way to show ten groups of 10! It's also an easy way to check your work without having to start all the way at the beginning.
Counting collections are more than just counting orally as high as you can. Rather they are opportunities to develop number sense- the understanding of how numbers relate to one another.
For example, Big Sis sometimes put more than 10 objects in the ten frame. I would point it out and she would have to count backwards or sometimes remove objects and recount the whole group. When should couldn't find enough of a certain object, we would ask ourselves, "Hmmm, how many more do we need to get to ten in that box?"
Not only was she counting, she was relating numbers to one another, problem solving, and doing addition and subtraction.
Also, not much time is spent in younger years counting to large numbers. Spending time counting to higher numbers helps kids to conceptualize what quantities look like. So often, those large numbers seem unfathomable to children. 100 seems like such a HUMONGOUS number to preschoolers and kindergartners, but doing a counting collection in a ten frame breaks it down into smaller groups.
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When introducing the concept of measurement to children, we always start with non standard measurement.
At the ages of 4-6, children understand the concept of short, long, taller, etc but they usually have no understanding of centimeters and inches, making those standard units of measurements too abstract for them.
So in preschool and kindergarten we introduce units of measurement that kids can really wrap their minds around. Usually those are regular household objects and toys.
Measuring is a practical skill that kids use when pouring water, comparing who had more cookies, determining who is taller, etc. In this activity kids delve in deeper to understand measurement of length and height with non standard units!
Though measuring length is usually the first thing that comes to mind when we think of measurement, there are actually multiple types of things we measure. Here are some of the standard units we use for these measurements:
Adults are used to pulling out a ruler, measuring cup, or using a scale to measure things. Usually we can visualize something close to a foot or a cup, if we needed to estimate. But children do not have that awareness yet, so instead teach them to measure with non-standard measurement unit.
These non-standard units can be anything but are best when the child selects them and are of high interest: shoes, lego pieces, stickers, race cars, etc. The one thing that they MUST be is uniform in size.
A child cannot measure their height in legos and markers! Instead one unit needs to be used at a time and lined up end to end, just as we would do when measuring with a ruler.
In the United States, the common core standards introduce standard measurement in second grade.
Before then, kids are expected to understand the concepts of measuring objects without using standard measurement tools, like in this first grade standard:
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.MD.A.2
Express the length of an object as a whole number of length units, by laying multiple copies of a shorter object (the length unit) end to end.
In each of these activities, kids use objects instead of rulers to measure length. There are a few rules for measuring precisely that kids should follow when lining up their nonstandard units:
To play "Measuring Me," you'll need blue tape and access to items around the home that are (mostly) uniform in length. Some ideas are shoes, blocks, markers, crayons, envelopes, etc.
While you have the blue tape out, check out TAPE SHAPES!
The non standard measurement unit for this activity is my favorite... snacks!
You can choose anything that is uniform in size, and I recommend items that are easy to line up end to end like pretzel sticks. Of course, a classic and fun snack to use is goldfish.
There may be opportunities to talk about halves or beginnings of fractions in case snacks don't line up exactly. You could also round up or round down...
Want another fun math snacktivity? You'll love PUNCH MATH!
This is one of my favorite math centers for the winter. Kids love to see the family of snowmen and compare their heights from shortest to tallest before measuring them in unifix cubes.
Student in this teacher's classroom measured and compared the lengths of different vegetables during a farming unit. Their teacher made them non standard bean rulers to practice measurement in a developmentally appropriate and fun fashion!
I love this simple yet genius measurement activity. Draw one straight line on a piece of paper and one crooked, anyway you choose. Have kids guess which is longer and then use paper clips to measure which one is longer.
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Teachers of young children talk about one to one correspondence, but what is it? One to one correspondence is counting one object for every number said.
Without one to one correspondence, one will not be able to count objects accurately. When a child is able to count one object per each number said, they also understand that a number represents a specific quantity.
At what age do kids develop one to one correspondence? This can be between the ages of 3-5. In kindergarten, kids are expected to count up to 20 objects with one to one correspondence. In preschool up to 10.
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Picture this: you're playing a board game. Your child rolls a 5 and they move their piece WAY MORE than 5 spaces, while managing to only count to five. They're not cheating! They lack one to one correspondence.
When given a quantity of objects and asked to count, many kids count faster than they register each object resulting in counting to a number that is MORE than the actual number of objects!
This happens because kids learn counting as a rote skill. Children memorize the number order much earlier than they learn to count objects, so saying the numbers in that order is automatic. For many, they are just saying numbers without any knowledge of numbers representing quantities.
So, we have get them to SLOW DOWN!
The best way to build one to one correspondence is to give children a way to slow their counting. So, I teach my students a counting rule called, "Touch 1, count 1." For every object they are counting, they must either touch it, or move it to another spot completely.
This snack activity, aka snacktivity, is a highly engaging way to build one to one correspondence with items you already have around the house.
For a very basic one to one correspondence activity - perfect for 2-3 year olds, try this build your own board game activity!
With this simple hands-on learning game, your kid will love learning number recognition, one to one correspondence, numeracy, and even arithmetic. Just grab these few supplies and get ready to play.
For preschoolers, I recommend numbers between 1-10. For kindergarteners, numbers ranging from 1-15. Don't go into the teens unless your child has mastered 1-10.
For this version, your child is solely focused on number recognition and one to one correspondence.
To start, present your kiddo with the straw and talk about the numbers they see on the aluminum. Their mission is to uncover their snack by identifying the correct number and punching through the aluminum foil that many times.
Invite your child to play by asking them to punch number 3 three times, number 5 five times, etc.
By punching the straw through the aluminum foil they're forced to slow down their counting and follow the "touch 1, count 1," rule of one to one correspondence.
They'll be thrilled to reveal the snacks underneath with each punch through. For an additional way to practice, you can have them count the snacks as well!
Once your preschooler or kindergartner has a good grip on number identification try this way of playing that builds number sense using more than and less than.
Call out actions such as, "Punch a number that is more than 5. Punch a number that is less than 2."
Another way to play this way is to show them on your hands a number of fingers and ask them to find a number that is more than or less than that many! That way they're "subitizing" the number of fingers, translating that into the number they identified, and then building their knowledge of more and less.
You guessed it: have your child determine which number is the sum or the difference to your simple arithmetic problem, and punch the number the correct number of times to reveal the snack beneath.
Use call outs like, "Punch the number that is 5 +1!" and "Punch the number that is 4-2!"
To scaffold and make this a little less tricky, use your fingers to show addition and subtraction. Hold up 8 fingers, "Punch the number that is this many take away 3!"
Kids who count the wrong number of objects without noticing their mistake have yet to develop the important skill of one to one correspondence.
The definition of one to one correspondence is the knowledge that only one item is to be counted for each number that you say. To put it another way, each item in a group of items is only to be counted once.
Kids learn how to count out loud before they learn how to count quantities. Oftentimes, they're saying the numbers faster than they're registering the actual quantity. So my rule is to tell them to "Touch 1, count 1."
In these one to one correspondence activities with your phone number, your child will delight in matching the quantity of various objects to the numbers before them.
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Dot stickers are a wonderful tool for developing one to one correspondence because peeling the sticker will slow down your child's counting. As they peel each sticker, they should only count one number more in the sequence.
Is your child having trouble peeling the stickers? Remove the white backing from the page and it'll be MUCH easier!
For beginner counters, try exercises where they have to actually move the objects they're counting. One excellent game that I use to build one to one correspondence with my 2 year old is this.
Moving the objects they're counting will slow down kids' oral counting to match the number of objects. As a result, they will better keep track of what they've already counted.
As children get more confident in counting, they might only touch the object, then point at it, and then ideally for smaller numbers, they'll be able to visually know how many they have quickly in a skill called subitizing. Domino games are great for subitizing!
Want more one to one correspondence practice? If your child likes snack time (who doesn't?), then they'll love this snacktivity aka snack activity.
