10 Kindergarten Math Games to turn your Child into a Math Wiz

I have always had a love hate relationship with Math.

I hate it with a passion but on the other hand I love…wait…cannot really come up with something I love about it.

So that makes it a hate hate relationship. I hate it and if Math had to be a person, it would probably hate me back.

I can do basic addition and multiplication but when it becomes too complicated and abstract, I’m like a deer caught in headlights.

This is, of course, one of the things I do not want to pass down to my daughter. My husband, being an engineer, loves math (and loves rubbing his superior skills in my face more often than I’d like).

So being the competitive person that I am, I have given myself the task to teach my daughter maths. I will make her the math wiz.

Cue in PANIC!!

After a few moments of hyperventilating and thinking of the enormity of the task I have taken on, I decided to search the world wide web and lo and behold my job just got easier.

So here are my top 10 fun kindergarten math games to turn your child into a math wiz (fool proof may I add):

1. Counting up and counting down

Your child is now fluent in numbers and if they’re anything like mine, very fluent in numbers from one to three.

I must repeat the phrase ‘If you don’t do it till I count to three you’re going to be in trouble, one, two, three’, enough times per day to make sure those first three numbers will haunt her for the rest of her childhood days.

But knowing numbers is not enough. They need to know the value each digit holds.

Stairs are the best place to count up and count down (and up and down again if you forgot a bag, a hat or a toy). Going up we count up and going down we count down.

2. Blocks and patterns

Copying a pattern and following a sequence are two very important skills to learn at a preschool age. They help children with more complex math, language learning, and sorting out of ideas later on in life.

Get your blocks and some white paper for flashcards. On each paper (A5 in size) draw a sequence of coloured squares (corresponding to the colour of blocks you have).

Vary from a sequence of 2 to 10 depending on your child’s level of patience and concentration. Then give your child a flashcard and let them copy the pattern using their blocks.

3. Popsicle stick shapes

Preschool children love shapes. They are able to see shapes in all objects. I’ve had my daughter point at my stomach and saying circle a couple too many times than I’m happy with.

Teaching shapes with popsicle sticks is pretty straight forward and it is a fun kindergarten math game without your child even noticing that it’s a lesson.

Get coloured popsicle sticks and some coloured paper to correspond. Cut out paper shapes and prepare the matching number of sticks. For example a yellow triangle with three yellow popsicle sticks.

Help your child place the popsicle sticks around the cut out shape in order to create the same shape.

4. How tall is it?

Young children do not have a concept of measuring units as yet however they can be taught to compare and contrast different lengths to see who is taller or shorter.

To make it fun and entertaining, get a few family pictures and cut out the heads. Stick yarn of different lengths to the head shots and hang the photos (by the head) with pegs onto a make shift washing line.

Your child should now be able to see who is taller and sequence the different family members according to height.

5. Number match

Clothes pegs in the playroom are a very common sight at home. Well actually it’s clothes pegs everywhere but back to the point.

Pegs are great because they can be used for counting, fine motor skills and coffee time (I stick them onto my daughter’s dress while having a coffee and watching her take them off one by one).

All you need are flashcards with numbers on them and pegs, pegs, pegs. Ask your little one to place pegs on the edge of the flashcard according to the number indicated.

This way they are learning the concept of amount as well as counting.

6. Baking quantities

When I’m in a good mood I bake. And when I’m in a good mood I allow my daughter to help with the baking even if I know I’ll be cleaning flour out of my hair for the rest of the day.

Who said kindergarten math games have to be boring (or clean)?

I find baking a good way to let her experience math and science together. For now I’ll focus on the math part.

Baking involves very precise measurements of various types, grams, millilitres, cups and tablespoons.

I let my daughter count whatever ingredients we need for the recipe to make sure we have everything (five ingredients on the recipe and five ingredients on the kitchen counter).

I also ask her to shout stop when we have reached the right measurement on the kitchen scales. This way she is getting a hands on appreciation of measurement and numbers.

7. Stamping patterns

Another pattern game we love to play is stamping. I have recently bought a stamping set for my daughter.

It was left intact and packed for quite a while in fear that she might go berserk and give us a new wall feature, however with some trepidation we have finally taken the plunge and let her play with it.

I prepare a few simple patterns on paper (for example red heart, yellow heart, red heart, and so on) and leave a few missing towards the end. She then goes over them and fills in any missing stamps.

So far I’m happy to report no major wall incidents.

8. Mystery numbers

As grownups we estimate and round up many things.

I round up my weight and age to the nearest acceptable number all the time.

For a fun way to teach children how to estimate, try taking an empty cup and a jar of candies, small blocks, or anything which can fit in the cup.

Ask your child to think of how many pieces of candy they think will fit.

Once they have that number start placing the amount into the cup and check whether they were right or how many more (or less) were needed to make the estimation just right.

9. Animal sort

Being a speech and language pathologist working with young children, most of my days were filled with activities of sorting and matching.

In our limited library of equipment and materials, the big box of animals was always a lifesaver.

Our hotchpotch mix of animals ranged from winged eagles to worms and cows and one very funny looking one legged chicken (don’t ask!).

Anyway it was always fun watching children trying to sort out these animals according to how many legs they have; four legs, two legs, no legs, and the one legged chicken!

This activity teaches grouping according to characteristics. You can choose different characteristics such as feathers vs. fur, land vs. sea, and so on.

10. Writing numbers

I left the messy one for last, but you know I had to add it. I couldn’t bear the thought of having to be the only one going through this.

At school age, children will be writing numbers on a daily basis so this is how you give them that head start and make learning fun.

Get a tray of sand or flour or couscous. Try to find the substance which is the easiest to clean afterwards.

Write numbers on flashcards and ask them to copy the image with their fingers onto the tray. Shake the tray so that you ‘erase’ the previous number and move on to the next number.

Voila number writing made easy.

 

Now that your child is well on her way to becoming a math wiz with these kindergarten math games, you can sit back and relax and enjoy the little Einsteins you are helping to create.