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This post has been co-written with Ben Wolfson, a full-time educator and assistant principal in the USA.
Spring in the preschool classroom can be a magical time of year. The weather starts to warm up meaning that you can get outside more, and there’s so much growing going on that your science projects will almost write themselves. It makes sense, therefore, to tap into this spring excitement in your academics, and these cute spring counting clip cards are a great resource to practice one to one correspondence all season long.
The Importance of Counting
It may sound obvious, but being able to accurately count the number of objects in a specific group is a key mathematical skill that underpins all of early addition and subtraction. It also sounds obvious, but the best way to help your preschool students to master the skill of one to one correspondence (i.e. seeing one object and saying one number) is through repeated practice and feedback. These spring counting clip cards will have your students counting bees 1 to 10 and undertaking butterfly counting practice in no time at all.
Preparing Your Spring Counting Clip Cards
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Extension Activities For Spring Counting Clip Cards
The concept behind these clip cards for counting practice is simple. Students take each card and look at the spring picture on the left hand side. It’s obvious what they need to count on each picture, whether it’s fireflies in a jar or bees buzzing around a beehive. They then used some sort of tool (a wooden peg or a marker if you’ve laminated the clip cards) to mark their answer. You can turn it into a self checking activity by putting a sticker on the reverse to show the correct answer. To extend this task for students who master it quickly, try some of these activities:
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Sort the cards – whether they’re playing flower counting games 1 to 10 or they’re counting bees 1 to 10, you can have students put the spring counting clip cards into numerical order. Each type (bees, flower petals, fireflies etc) has 10 examples, so you could ask your student to line them up in number order starting with either 1 or 10. This will help them visualize the magnitude of each number.
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Compare cards – once your students have mastered the skill of being able to put all 10 clip cards of a particular type in order, you can start teaching them how to use this skill to compare any two numbers. The visual on each card should be enough for them to make simple number sentences (7 bees is greater than 2 bees), and for students who pick this up quickly, you can have them compare different types (e.g. choose one firefly clip card and one flower petal clip card to compare).
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Make their own – you can tap into your students’ excitement about spring by having them come up with ideas for their own spring counting clip cards. You might find more variations on a flower theme, smiling suns or bunny rabbits and giving the students ownership over their own resources will drive their engagement as they use each others’ clip cards.
Like this? Then you’ll love my 10 Bugs and Butterflies Themed Literacy and Math Centers. These easy-prep games will get your students working on letters, phonics, numbers and more!
Games included:
1) Bugs Playdough Counting Mats – Blank ten frame to count out playdough ball ‘insects’ + playdough number formation
2) Butterfly Spots Counting Clipcards to 20
3) Bugs Arrange By Size – 5 different bugs, 6 sizes each
4) Bumblebee Match By Math – Match the bee to the correct flower by solving the simple addition sums to 10
5) Caterpillar Complete The Pattern Strips – Use pompoms, dot markers, dot stickers, or other colored manipulatives to complete the patterns. Includes ABAB, AABB, ABCABC and ABCB patterns.
6) Butterfly Alphabet Match – Upper and lowercase matching cards. Single color and multicolor letter cards included
7) Catching Butterfly Beginning Sounds – Match objects to the correct letters.
8) Caterpillar Order Alphabet Strips – Look at the set of 5 letters and decide if they’re in the correct order then choose thumbs up or down.
9) Ladybug Tracing Lines – Fine motor pre-writing practice, 4 mats included.
10) Leaves for Lunch Ants Alphabet Sort – Divide up letter cards into vowels and consonants.
Check it out for more ready-to-go fun!
Books About Insects That We Love:
Other Spring Printables You’ll Love:
1) May Spring Printable Worksheets Pack – 50 pages of free printable worksheets including a variety of literacy, math, and fine motor activities.
2) Spring Flowers Draw and Count – Students will need to draw the number of flowers stated on the page.
3) Spring Code Words – Solve the coded puzzle to find out the Spring themed vocabulary words.
4) Spring Counting Clipcards – This activity is perfect for preschool number recognition, one-to-one correspondence, and counting skills.
5) Spring Color By Number Pack – There are 6 spring-themed color-by-number pages included in this pack.
6) Bird Theme 3 Part Cards – Set up this free printable as proper 3 part cards for a spring literacy activity or as a preschool science center to help your students learn the names of different birds.
7) Weather Math Worksheets Pack – 9 different math worksheets inside this weather-themed activity pack for working on number order, shapes, counting etc.
8) Count The Kites 1-10 – Practice counting while strengthening their little hand muscles at the same time with this set of counting clip cards.
9) Raindrops Counting Frames – Keep your kids busy indoors with this rain-themed counting activity.
10) Missing Number Eggs – Practice counting from 1-20 with this cut and paste activity.
Educational Tools For Your Classroom:
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
