My preschoolers loved counting. Any excuse was a good one.

Help me count out spoons for everyone? Yes!

We can only check out 20 library books. Can you help me check how many we have? Yes!

Want to go for a counting walk adventure? YES!

If you kids are at this point, then these easy activities are for you. I am a huge fan of keeping things simple, so these are number activities that you can do with no prep.

When you get back from your counting walk or when you find yourself with some spare time to fill and an eager number counter – sit down and do one of these activities to encourage number recognition, counting with one-to-one correspondence and more preschool number skills.

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5 Preschool Number Activities

Many of them used our Counting Bears which are a wonderful hands-on math materials for Preschool and Early Elementary (You can find them HERE).

Here are five fantastically simple number activities:

1. Counting Bears: Sort and Count

To play you need some Counting Bears (see above) and a table.

Pour the counting bears on the table and have your child sort them by color. For more than one child you can divide the bears into groups or have the children work together.

When they are done sorting, ask “Which color of bears has the biggest group and which is the smallest?” Have them guess and then count to confirm.

2. Counting Bear Pattern Challenges

My twins thought this is fabulous fun. We have been working on patterns for a while and this is a fun way to practice.

Divide the bears somewhat equally between the people playing.

Have each person create the beginning to a pattern. We call this “creating a pattern challenge.”

When everyone is done with their pattern, have them rotate to the next person and try to continue their pattern.

To add some number work into your patterns, give limitations to your patterns such as; patterns much contain 2 green bears or must be 3 bears long.

3. Rainbow Scavenger Hunt + Count

To play, start with a clear table or large space on the floor. You will be creating a rainbow with your toys and other materials.

One color at a time, have everyone hunt around the house, playroom, or classroom for items that match that color. For example, first you will send everyone to find things that are red.

When they come back, arrange them in a line or arch and then move onto the next color.

To keep the colors somewhat even, you may want to count how many things you find as you go. Otherwise, similar to the sort and count activity above, when you are done hypothesize about which color has the largest and smallest group and then count to determine.

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4. Number Book

Read a book with Numbers. This list of Counting Books is a great start. We read Have You Seen My Dragon by Steve Light.

As you go, have your child represent the numbers mentioned with their Counting Bears. This helps them start to tie the number to the numeral on the page.

5. Dancing Bear Pairs

My daughter essentially invented this game. She likes to pretend with the Counting Bears while we do activities with them and she was pretending a couple were dancing when it dawned on me this was the perfect way to introduce odd and even numbers.

To play Dancing Bear Pairs all you need are Counting Bears. If you wish, some number cards can also be used to continue working on Number Recognition.

To play, explain: that your bears are going to a dancing party and they all need a partner. Unfortunately, one of the bears at the Odd Party won’t have a partner, but if they are at an Even Party everyone will.

Let’s see what kind of party the Number 4 is. Have your preschooler find four bears, pair them off and then declare it must be an Even Party.

Continue with different numbers, both odd and even.

read also: playful preschool math activities