Preschool Learning: Lily Pads Math Activity

Here's another game to get your kid moving and thinking! The goal is to instill your child with number sense. What's that? Number sense is an awareness and knowledge of numbers: what they are, what they represent and their relationships among a cluster of numbers. Once your child has good number sense, she can start solving bigger math problems. So let's hop to it!
What you need:

• Green construction paper
• Markers
• Scissors

How to do it:

• Cut out lily pad shapes using the construction paper.
• Write a number on each lily pad.
• For little learners: Stick with the numbers 1-9.
• For older children: Practice double digit numbers.
• Place the lily pads on a rug or sidewalk (Yes! Another game to take outside!) with the number facing up.
• Your child will be the leaping frog, and has to find and hop to the correct number pad that you call out. Examples include:
  
  Jump to number 5.
  Reach and stretch to touch number 7.
  Count my claps to figure out which number to jump to next.
  Touch your toe on number 12.
  
• Increase the challenge level for older children by making it simple addition and subtraction problems (e.g., Land on the number that equals 7 + 3.)

Brain-Building Bonus: Pick up the lily pads and put them in a pile. Randomly select one lily pad and toss it number-side up on the ground. Have your child call out the number on the lily pad, and then count to that number as she performs an action (jump, clap, touch your nose) the same number of times. For example, if you tossed out a 5, she could touch her toes 5 times while counting each toe touch (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). This is a great way to get kids to associate a quantity with a number!

How this builds brains: This game gets your child leaping directly into number recognition by getting your kid to concentrate on the shapes of numbers, identifying numbers, and even finding one number among a group of numbers.

Let's learn! Let's have fun!

Get more brain-building activities for your kid! Check out our Brain Building Boot Camp with Dr. Christine Ricci.