I may earn money from companies mentioned in this post at no cost to you. Thank you!
This post has been co-written with Ben Wolfson, a full-time educator and assistant principal in the USA.
Your kindergarten students always love to count, and learning one to one correspondence is such an important skill that you’ll want them to practice it all year long. These count and cover number mats give your students multiple opportunities to practice recognizing different forms of each number as they practice counting to 10. There’s lots of ways to turn these mini eraser math activities into games so that your students will want to play all year long.
Teaching Number Representation
A key early math skill in the kindergarten classroom is being able to conceptualize each number as referring to a set of objects. While ten frames are the current best practice for teaching addition and subtraction, students also need to be able to look at a group of any objects and accurately count them. In time, your goal will be to have them begin to subitize, which is the ability to automatically know the number of objects in a group without having to count them individually, and these count and cover mats give you a perfect starting point.
Preparing Count and Cover 1 – 10
For this activity you will need:
Paper
Printer
Tokens to cover like mini erasers, pom poms etc
Optional: laminator
If you don’t have the materials needed, don’t sweat! You can get it delivered to your doorstep really quickly with Amazon Prime. You can get a 30-day free trial here.
The best thing about these number recognition games is that they give you an instant math center. Simply download the target number that you’re working on (or get a whole set!), print full size and you’re ready to go. If you’re doing the cut and order activity below, you may want to laminate the cards to stop them getting destroyed by eager fingers.
Playing Count And Cover Games
These mini eraser math activities are simple to put straight into your math centers. Just pick one of the 1 to 10 counting mats and have students find all the examples of the target number by covering it with a mini eraser or similar small objects. As with all the best kindergarten math centers, the activity is best when you gamify it, so try some of these games to keep your students counting and covering:
-
Race to cover – in this paired game, each student starts with a copy of the same target number page. On a signal, both players start to count and cover, racing against the other player to see who can complete the page first. To increase cooperation, play this game with the students working together on one page and challenge them to beat their best time. Use these Food Friends Partner Cards to pair up your students peacefully!
-
Count and compare – this doubles as a speaking and listening game as well as a math challenge. One player is the “caller” and looks down at their sheet and picks two objects to be compared (e.g. they might say “fingers and pepperoni pieces”). Their partner has to count up the number of each item and make a comparison sentence (e.g. “there are more fingers than pepperoni pieces”).
-
Cut and order – you can get multiple counting to 10 activities from each card. To get students thinking about the magnitude of each number, instead of the size of the objects being counted, try cutting out all the squares on one page. Students then count the instances of each objects and make a “train” of cards in numerical order.
This product contains 40 different playdough counting mats up to the number 10. There are 10 unique designs for each season.
It’s perfect for hands-on math practice – learning the basic concepts of counting, one to one correspondence and quantity – as well as improving fine motor skills.
This fun resource can also be used with your own hands-on manipulatives if you prefer.
These mats will make a great addition to your maths centers all year long and are designed for preschool, kindergarten and first grade.
Check it out here!
Things You Might Need for this Math Center:
Browse My Most Popular Math Printables:
1) Parking Cars Tracing Lines – More than 10 different tracing line patterns to choose from, all of which help with pencil control.
2) Scarecrow Arrange By Size – 3 different scarecrow-themed image sets that they will arrange from smallest to biggest.
3) Bumblebee Addition Game – Solve the sum and help the bee land on the correct flower!
4) Farm Shapes Mats – Use playdough, pompoms, stickers etc to learn 2D shapes.
5) Popsicle Stick Number Formation – Kids will love forming the numbers 1 to 10 when ice cream and popsicles are involved!
6) Valentines Printable Worksheets Pack – 50 pages of mixed literacy and math activities.
7) Zoo Animals Number Puzzle Strips – Complete these cute puzzles and learn the numbers 1 to 20.
8) Counting Colorful Bugs – This printable book will help kids count to 10 while also learning about color words.
9) Humpty Dumpty Numbers – In this printable game, your students will practice number recognition using 1 dice or simple addition when using 2 dice.
10) Build A Number Santa – Match the number to the correct number word, tally mark and domino to form a Santa Claus
** To download this free printable please enter your email address below. Afterwards, the form disappears to reveal a clickable link – “Click here to download this printable”. Save it to your desktop or Google Drive as you need.
You’ll also be added to my newsletter list, giving you access to the Subscriber Library which has more than 500+ pages of worksheets free! **
Related posts:
Dog Bone Math Game: Addition and Subtraction Within 10
Simple Snowman Real Life 2D Shapes Puzzles
Halloween Printable Worksheets Pack
Construction Counting Mats 1-10
Christmas Printable Worksheet Pack
Get Your Students Writing Numbers 1 to 20 This Thanksgiving
Choo Choo Choose A Train Number Writing Practice!
Missing Number Eggs 1-20