Inspired by april showers, here is a printable set of umbrella counting cards you can use at home, for your daycare or school centers. With these counting cards, your little one will count raindrops by matching the manipulative of your choice to the number on the umbrella. Use this printable with your preschooler to work on 1:1 Correspondence, Sequencing, and Counting 1-10. Enjoy this fun, hands-on spring math activity!
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I'm sure you are familiar with the saying, "april showers, bring may flowers"? As we make our way into the rainy spring season, practice counting with your preschool and/or kindergartener with these printable umbrella counting mats!
Preschool Counting Printable
Supplies:
- Umbrella Number Cards - Download the free Counting Raindrops printable HERE
- small blue manipulatives for "raindrops"
Small pom poms, buttons, glass gems, sequins, or pony beads are great manipulatives to use for this activity.
Using small manipulatives with these counting cards are a great way to sneak in fine motor skills!
Present the materials to your preschooler on some type of tray. I think it helps make the activity more enticing and also it helps keep the activity contained!
I personally save those hard wooden boxes from Melissa and Doug toys-- they are sturdy and the compartments in this particular tray kept kept the materials separated, but within reach.
How-to use these counting cards:
Below are some ways you can use these counting cards. If you think of another, leave a comment below! These printable counting cards are a great way to make math fun! Work on counting, number recognition, addition, etc. etc!
- Have your preschooler pick a card and add that many raindrops.
- Put the cards in numerical order. To add an "extra" element to this, you could hang up a piece of string and have your child clip the umbrellas in order using clothespins!
- Practice addition by putting two cards together and then adding the numbers.
- Compare raindrops on two cards to find out which number is more than or less than.
- Create a counting booklet
If you laminate the printable, you could also have your preschooler DRAW raindrops on the printable. Just make sure you wipe off the markings after the activity as sometimes marker stains can prove to be stubborn!
Another option is to use these umbrella counting cards and create a little booklet. Creating raindrops with your child's fingerprints would also be a fun and messy activity!
Cut out each card, assembling them into a pile, and staple along one side.
Thus your preschooler can have his/her own counting booklet to keep! If using as a counting book, provide your child with some small blue stickers to use as raindrops!
Sequencing Counting Cards
To work on sequencing/ number order skills, you could have your child clip the numbers in order on a clothesline to work on fine motor skills... or keep it simple and just have your preschooler line them up on the floor.
Or set up a "missing number" challenge using these counting cards! Line up several numbers on the floor, but take one out. See if your child can figure out the missing number!
So many ways to LEARN & PLAY using these cute umbrella counting cards!!
Enjoy!!