Number Sense for Preschoolers

When first learning about numbers, children benefit most greatly from concrete examples and repetitive practice. Concrete examples include using small objects to manipulate while counting, and learning about how math is all around us in daily life. Repetitive practice is best when it bridges those concrete examples to paper and long term memory. Kids Academy offers research-based, kid friendly practice resources you’ll enjoy sharing with your young learner. In the skill set of counting and learning numbers, we give ideas and resources for you to use with your child. Counting up to 3, 5, and understanding adding and taking away are just some of the informative concepts covered here.

One way that children first become aware of counting is by hearing their grown ups do it, or their favorite characters on tv shows counting. As soon as you notice that your preschool-aged child might be ready to explore numbers, provide them with lots of opportunities to see and count small groups of objects and the numerals that correspond to them. Notice how many cars are parked in a row, or how many lamps are in the house. Notice how many fingers and toes they have on each hand and foot. Start teaching them to put up one finger and say the word ‘one’. At first, keep things below 5. Focus on small, achievable goals like identifying just 3 objects or holding up 3 fingers. Make sure to teach not only groups of 3 objects and counting to 3 in isolation, but to always reinforce on concept with the other at the same time. Making connections is one of the best ways to ensure skill mastery.

This printable skill sheet from Kid’s Academy’s Library of resources is a very basic worksheet to use early on in your child’s learning journey. Make the pictures come to life by picking up some produce at the grocery store and modeling the groups of oranges, apples and pears on the kitchen counter before counting them on the page. Have your little learner trace the numerals with their finger before tracing the lines with a crayon to the correct match.  

Have an amazing time with your child making some farm animal noises and walking around on all fours. After that, use this counting objects resource to make connections between picture models, numerals, and ten frames. Seeing numbers represented in several different ways at the same time helps children to be able to access their learning more readily. Where one child may be able to visualize 2 the next time they are asked by thinking about the horses, another might better connect with the ten frame dots. Math is taught differently now than even 10 years ago, so giving students choices of ways to solve problems rather than prescribing one way is key to preparing them for kindergarten.

One of the next steps in practicing math concepts with preschool-aged children is counting up one, or back one. This can be done with very basic supplies, like legos or pennies to make it concrete. Then, use a worksheet like this or one of several others available on Kids Academy to connect the concrete examples to working on paper. Give lots of support with this, as children are just beginning their counting journey and may not be entirely comfortable with numbers moving back and forth. Make sure to give lots of opportunities to touch and count and model taking away and adding one. Don’t feel pressured to do more than one at this early learning stage. Keep the goals achievable to lay the foundation for kindergarten success.

Check out our interactive catalogue to find more articles on different aspects of early number sense development!