Inside: Find a fun counting activity perfect for winter and the FREE printables to do this hands on math activity with your little learners.  Affiliate links are used.  Read my disclosure here.

Winter Counting Activity

Counting real snowballs is fun, but we live in the south where real snowballs are few and far between.  So I needed to improvise on a winter counting activity for my preschoolers to do.

This is the perfect hands on math activity for preschoolers.  Children get to practice counting, one to one correspondence, and recognizing written numerals from 0-20 while enjoying this fun, snow-themed activity.

 

Materials You’ll Need

First, you’ll need to print out some snowman cards programmed with the numbers 0-20.  I like to laminate the cards so they’ll hold up to repeated use. (You can download some FREE cards at the end of this post!)

Then, you’ll need to gather some “snowballs”.  Any of the following will work:

• Jumbo Cotton Balls
• Sparkly White craft Pom Poms
• Snowflake or Snowball Themed Mini Erasers

Hands on Winter Math for Preschoolers

After you prep the free snowman cards and gather your snowball counters, you’re ready for fun! Your preschoolers will love this winter counting activity, and you’ll love how low prep and inexpensive it is.

Choose which cards your child or small group of children should focus on.  3 year olds will probably only work on a few numbers while 4 and 5 year olds may be able to master numbers all the way to 20.

As a pre-k teacher, it’s my goal for my students to recognize written numerals to 10, but I want them to be able to count at least 20 objects, one at a time.

Let each child randomly choose a card and try to name the numeral.  Then, have them count out that number of snowballs to go with the card.  Be sure to encourage one to one correspondence by showing children how to slide one “Snowball” at a time and name one number at a time in the counting sequence.

Practice Writing Numerals

Writing numerals correctly isn’t quite as important for preschoolers as counting and recognizing numbers, but some little learners will be ready for the challenge!

Be sure to model proper number formation instead of just letting them trace the numbers willy-nilly!  It’s very hard to correct things that have been learned incorrectly, so it’s best to model from the beginning!

You can even laminate the numeral tracing pages so they can be used with dry erase markers again and again.

How to Get Your FREE Winter Counting Activity

The snowman number cards and numeral tracing practice pages are available for FREE to my readers!  Simply click on the image below to download your FREE printables.  Leave a comment and let me know how you plan to use this hands on math activity with your preschooler!

 

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