As a primary teacher, I spend a lot of time working on fun ways to teach numbers and counting in my classroom. You too? While we all know that these concepts are essential, endless worksheets to memorize them can get a little boring, right? I certainly think so! That’s why today I’m sharing 5 fun ways you can teach numbers and counting in your classroom. These activities will snag attention immediately and ensure your students stay engaged in learning!
Make Number Recognition and Counting Fun
What’s the best way to help your kids remember a lesson? If you said make it fun, I’d have to agree! The more fun we can weave into our lessons, the better our kids will retain that information. Not to mention, when we work on something like numbers and counting, we’re going to have to practice a lot for mastery. That being said, to maintain engagement, we’ve gotta keep things interesting! Lucky for you, I’ve created some fun activities to help you teach numbers and counting in a fun way. Here’s my top 5!
1. Number Play Dough Mats
When it comes to teaching numbers and counting, one of my all-time favorite tools is play dough. This squishy medium is a favorite among primary learners. It’s great for this topic because you can use it to form numbers as well as become handy manipulative for counting practice. My kids always rush to the play dough table, so engagement isn’t an issue either!
I like to take it up a notch by pairing play dough with these Numbers and Counting Mats. I laminate them ahead of time and store them in a tub with some ready-to-use playdough. This creates an instant center activity or morning work station that my students can use independently.
Each mat includes 5 different activities to target numbers and counting for 0-10, including build the number with dough, find and circle the number, trace it, write it, and build it in a tens frame.
If you laminate these, allow children to use dry-erase markers for the tracing, circling, and writing sections of the page. Then, they can use playdough to build the number and represent it in the tens frames. My kids love this activity, and I love that it offers such an easy way to practice numbers and counting!
2. Cover It Up Numbers and Counting Mats
Do you ever need an activity for warm-ups in your small group that students can work on while you get organized? I did too, which is why I created Cover it Up Numbers and Counting Mats!
They offer a quick and easy way to review, and I love the ease of using them with my small groups. As my students are rotating centers and I’m getting a new group of kids at my table, I place one sheet in front of each spot. When they sit down, they play a Cover It Up game and it gives me just a few minutes to get the materials for that group ready while I monitor our transition time. It’s a great way to keep them busy and learning, without having to wait on me! Plus, it means we can review numbers and counting each day without much additional thought on my part. Win-win!
These pages include a focus number at the top of the page and then a grid filled with other numbers. The students will search the page for the focus number and cover it up on their board. You can use BINGO daubers, mini erasers, counters, or even crayons to do this. There are 5 different sheets included for each number, so your students will get plenty of practice. There’s a set for numbers 0-10 as well as teen numbers to twenty. Use them like I do for your small group warm-up, or try them for center time, morning bins, or as an early finisher activity.
3. Let’s Make a Square
My kids love to play games! Yours too? Oh, you’ll love this next idea for number recognition, then! Make a Square is a partner game that’s a huge hit in my classroom.
To play, students will take turns drawing one line at a time to connect two dots side by side, either vertically or horizontally. When one child draws the line that completes a square around a number, they are able to claim that square, but only if they can correctly identify the number. If they identify the number, they color it and it’s theirs! If they cannot identify the number, their partner can “steal” the square by correctly identifying and coloring the square.
I’m sure you can imagine, this game is a lot of fun for the kids and gets pretty competitive! They will continue to draw lines and claim and color squares until all squares are claimed. The student with the most squares wins!
I love this game because it’s super simple to prep – just copy and go! It’s got the ease of a worksheet, while providing the engagement factor of a game. This set includes 100 total pages. You get 10 sheets for each number decade from 0-100. This allows for plenty of differentiation depending on the level that your kids are working at! Try these as an instant center option to lighten your prep load, while making number recognition fun!
4. Building Brick Mats
Remember when I said that part of what makes a lesson stick is the fun factor? Well, what’s more fun than building with Lego bricks?! Among the primary crowd, they are always a big favorite, and they feel more like play than schoolwork to my kiddos! I definitely took advantage of this when I created these Building Brick Number Mats!
These are similar to the dough mats mentioned above, except they use small building bricks as the tool. Students will build the number with bricks, find and circle the number, count and color the number, write the number, and build the number in a tens frame.
These are great if you do “number of the week” in your classroom. Just pull out the mat for your focus number and make a copy for each student. Then, you’ve got one of your center stations covered with zero prep! Hooray!
You can also laminate these if you would prefer to use them over and over again. In this case, have your students use a dry-erase marker to check off as they count, rather than color for that section. They can build the number with mini erasers or small counters. When they are done, just wipe the mat clean and trade with a friend to try a different number. This is a great activity to have in your emergency sub-tub!
5. Counting Games
Alright friends, I’ve got one more idea for you on this list, and actually, there are a few activities included in this one! These Counting Games are such a great way to work with numbers in your classroom. Inside this resource, you’ll find a few different low-prep activities that everyone will love. Here’s what’s included:
- Count and Graph Worksheets
- Count and Tally Worksheets
- Count and Clip Cards
- Cut and Paste Counting Worksheets
- Count and Color Worksheets
The Count and Tally, and Count and Graph are my favorites! On each page, students will count the number of items in the box and then record it with either tally marks or on the bar graph. I love that there are two options, so we can choose the skill that works best for what we’ve been learning.
There are also Count and Clip cards that make an excellent counting center that also targets fine motor skills. I like to laminate these cards and store them in photo boxes for continued use. And finally, there are some extra worksheets that you can sprinkle into your day wherever they fit! I always find myself in need of a few extra practice worksheets that are engaging and fun. These fit the bill!
Focus on Variety to Teach Numbers and Counting
I hope you had fun checking out some of my favorite learning activities for teaching numbers and counting. These are my tried and true favorites because my students absolutely love them! I like to cycle between each of them throughout the year because variety is so important when it comes to maintaining engagement. So, no matter how you decide to teach numbers and counting in your classroom, I hope that this post served as a source of inspiration to get you started! Focus on fun activities that incorporate hands-on learning, and you’ll be in good shape. Oh, and you can find all of the resources mentioned here, plus many more, in my TPT shop!
Looking for More?
Check out these math posts for the primary classroom next!
- 9 No-Prep Math Games & Activities You Can Use In Class Today!
- Activities for Teaching Addition by Counting On
- Data and Graphing Activities for Kindergarten
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