16 Counting Activities for Preschoolers

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George is counting like crazy lately! I don’t know when, but it just clicked for him one day. Now, to put it into context, these are some fun counting activities for preschoolers to practice their 1-2-3s!

There are some many hands on counting activities to do with the kids!

Finding what’s in nature, counting leaves, counting petals, counting rocks. Or look in their toy bin and sort objects and count, count, count!

How many blue blocks are there?

How many straight train tracks are set up?

How many….? what?

Once I see my kids are interested in counting, they can’t seem to stop! George counts everything. When we’re playing board games, he counts how many cards, pieces, whatever it is that is left. Board games are also great for beginners to count spaces, usually its only a few spaces at a time, so its a great way to start.

Whatever it is… make counting fun and natural for the kids. I never try to force a learning problem on them. But just expand on what they’re currently interested in.

These are 16 activities for preschoolers to practice counting.

These are activities that really focus in on the child counting. I have also put together some awesome number activities that include counting, but also number recognition and one to one correspondence.

Counting activities that are lots of fun:

Roll the dice. Count them. Stack the blocks. Count them. Repeat. – One to One Correspondence Practice with Dice & Blocks
Go on a scavenger hunt to find numbers and match them up with the corresponding dots. – Letter & Number Scavenger Hunt for Preschoolers to Learn
Graph Legos (or other blocks) by counting, counting, counting! – Using Legos to Teach Math & Writing from Crayon Freckles
Use Dominoes to decide which chore to do. How many dots are on the Domino? Count them. That’s the chore to do. – Chore List with Dominoes & Numbers
More Dominoes! Line up the Dominoes by matching the dots. How many dots are there? – Learning Activity with Dominoes
Label bottles with numbers and have the kids count and drop pom poms (or any small object) in. – Sort and Count Math Bottles from The Imagination Tree
Instead of bottles, do it with baby food jars! For the farm-loving kid, call them grain bins and have them haul their ‘grain’ and put it in the bins. Each bin can only hold the amount its labeled as. – Number Activity: Learn to Count with Grain Bins
Make a simple grid on the sidewalk with numbers and find that many objects from nature! – Counting Objects from Nature from Scribble Doodle and Draw
Make a paper chain and count down to something exciting (a birthday, holiday, first day of school, last day of school, vacation, etc)! Every day, count how many chains are left to see how many more days. –Countdown to Christmas: Wrapping Paper Chain
Count snacks! Line up some numbers and count snacks to match the number! – We’re Going on a Bear Hunt from Chasing Cheerios
Head out into nature and petals on the flowers you find. Take it a step further and sort them by number of petals! – Counting Flower Petals
Count apple seeds. Use tally marks as visuals! Apple Seed Math from ABCs to ACTs.
Play to your child’s interests. For a vehicle-loving child, use semis to haul blocks to build towers using the correct number of blocks. – Counting Blocks While Building Towers
Count using paper clips. Make cute flash cards with numbers and have the kids clip as many paper clips! Paper Clip Number Cards from Early Education Zone.
Make a grid of numbers to learn to count and recognize numbers. – What’s the Number? Count it with Blocks!
Practice skip counting but tens! Use some Cheerios and toothpicks. Counting to ten over and over again, then skip count by ten to 100! – Cheerios Skip Counting by 10s with 1-2-3 Peas