Counting Activities for Toddlers
Children are generally huge fans of learning through play and all of the creative and fun-filled counting activities for toddlers on this blog are designed to be as fun, immediate, educational and engaging for little ones. You won’t need use of a worksheet or math book aid in teaching numbers to toddlers.
Count your steps as you climb the stairs, count the numbers of birds sitting on the tree, the plants in the garden, the flowers grown on the plant, fingers and toes while singing, how many blue cars rushed by past the window and so on! Children learn best through real life experiences and when we take hold of them to teach them at school or home, they can be just as practical, palpable and fun.
You don’t have to worry about how to teach toddler to count. Here are some of the most amazing and fun ways to make your little one practice counting skills. They are all very easy and you can set them up at your home or in the classroom or anywhere for preschooler, kindergarten and first grade children. They aid in helping child build and solidify their understanding of identifying numbers and how each one is represented.
1) Beans and Flowerpot:
Set some plain beans in a basket and write numbers from 1 to 20 on little planter pots. Ask the child to place the pots in order and once done put the number of the beans (amount of the beans should be the number on the pot) in the pot. You can also introduce the idea of adding together two pots full of beans to find the total amount, or even move to subtraction other than learn numbers for older children.
2) Magnetic Counting Fish Game:
Make learning fun with this counting activity fish game to go along with a popular counting rhyme to make ease to counting numbers for toddlers which goes like: “1, 2, 3, 4, 5 once I caught a fish alive 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 then I let it go again, Why did you let it go? Because it bit my finger so Which finger did it bite? This little finger on my right!” All of the fingers are put up one by one and everyone makes the action of a swimming fish and a painful little finger as it gets bitten. You can use paper cardboards and pint them colorful and write numbers on each one. Add a split pin to the mouth of each to get caught. There are many ways that these fish can be used as a counting and ordering resource whether just as part of the song or as a maths game to make it an activity of counting numbers for toddlers. You can place the fishes upside down on the floor and ask your little one on his turn to pick up each and place them in ordering number from 1 to 5.
Want to teach counting to your kids through Apps?
Dino Counting is a great counting game for kids who are starting to learn and read numbers. Watch your children quickly learn how to count and recognize numbers while playing this counting game for kids.
3) Counting and Addition Activity Tray:
Set -up an interesting and fun math activity for kids using counting manipulatives, play dough and a dice, in a tray. To help you in how to teach a child to count by counting activity to simple addition and subtraction games, this can be used to learn via play for all ages, especially 1st grade children. Fill a tray of various sections with some transparent counters, colored shape buttons, plain wooden numerals, blue/any color glass pebbles, large dice and a large ball of dough. Suggest the child to roll a dice and count how many spots it faces as lands. Then tell them to start adding on the dough, same number of objects/buttons as the number counted on the dice and finally place the numeral on it.
4) Counting with Beads On Spaghetti:
Set out balls for play dough and stick dry spaghetti sticks into them. Place a bowl filled with colorful threading beats and some numeral cards (made very simple by writing onto squares of card) next to it. Your little one will be very excited to start with threading beads, make their own patterns and count out numbers to match cards.
5) Bean Bag Numbers Toss On the Stairs:
It’s simple to set up, easy to play, exercise for your body, and learning that is ideal for kindergarten and preschool baby. You will need bean bags, sticky notes and markers or crayons to write numbers on it. Place them on the stairs and hand the bean bag to the baby. Say a number and he has to hit the bag on it. He then will be picking up the bean bag and on his way up the stairs, he will be counting the steps on his way until he reaches the bag. For e.g, if the bean bag is on step no 4, he would go like 1,2,3 and 4, pick it up and start-off again.
6) Number Maze:
Tape out a maze by your own on the floor or desk. You will need to write numbers along the path till the end. Hand your little one with his favorite car and he has to move it through the maze in the order of numbers. You can make use of numbers he is not really aware of or the one’s he might find difficulty in learning. This is one of the most fun counting activities for toddlers as kids especially in kindergarten and preschool love activities involving cars and toys.
7) Tracing Numbers on Tape:
A quick setup for toddlers for tracing numbers that works on recognizing numbers and also is a great practice writing for older preschool and even kindergarten children. Tape numbers on the floor using painters tape. You need to do this on smooth floor surfaces and even on their study tables or desk. Hand your little ones with washable markers so that it’s easy to wipe off any mess from the floor. Your child will be tracing numbers of his choice and by doing so would learn counting and shapes of various numbers.
8) Q-Tip Number Tracing
Tracing is fun, just ask the kids. It’s double fun when you get your hands on colors. The primary focus is on pre-school and kindergarten kids in this activity. Place the paint pots with each Q-tip in a row. Take a sheet and write numbers with the help of different color pencils (make sure to include the colors in the paint pots). Tell him to trace each number by dipping the Q-tip in the paint. This activity is the most fun-filled and colorful amongst other counting activities for toddlers. This will improve so many important skills in your child. Tracing requires hand-eye coordination, focus and refines motor skills. With this activity, preschoolers (and even toddlers) can learn the colors and numbers in a fun way!
Conclusion:
Games and activities are always a great way to help young children build skills whether it’s counting activities for toddlers or helping with how to teach a child to count. They can be done independently or with a small group of children. The best thing is you don’t need to go anywhere or buy stuff specifically, they can be done at your home anytime you want. Teaching numbers to toddlers will be easy and fun with this collection of number game-activities for your child which aids strengthen simple counting skills and number recognition.