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This post has been co-written with Ben Wolfson, a full-time educator and assistant principal in the USA.
There’s so many ways you can take a winter theme in your preschool classroom in your math centers. Creating 2D shape snowmen are great ways to teach names of shapes and basic tessellation in geometry, while you can collect data on the number of snowy/cloudy days during the winter season. As always, there’s plenty of winter things to count, from ice skaters on the rink to winter animals in a picture. These winter themed number puzzle strips 1 to 20 represent an easy and fun way to have your students master their number sequencing skills this season.
The Importance of Number Sequencing
Your students may come into your preschool classroom with some knowledge of the number words, and a little idea of how these numbers link together. It’s one of your big goals to help them master the number order from 1 to 10 and then their number sequencing 11 to 20. Knowing the number order from 1 to 10 is the first developmental step in being able to add and subtract, and mastering this essential skill will help your students accurately use a number line when they get into kindergarten. This winter number sequence printable is a great tool for practicing this skill by linking a jigsaw puzzle picture with numbers so that students can independently check and self-correct their work.
Preparing Winter Number Puzzle Strips
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Teaching Strategies With Number Puzzle Strips 1 to 20
If you laminate each of the puzzles in this winter number sequence printable (both the number order from 1 to 10 picture and the number sequencing 11 to 20 activity), you can get plenty of repeated practice all season long. A suggested teaching sequence looks like this:
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Whole group introduction – make sure you have printed a large scale version of both jigsaws. Ask students one by one to come and find the next piece of the puzzle, solving from the left to right to encourage their systematic and sequential understanding of the number system.
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Small group practice – with an adult in charge, give each student a copy of the target jigsaw puzzle. Have students work from left to right again, and work together to build the jigsaw puzzle strip by strip. This is a great forum to practice saying and chanting the numbers out loud as you build the puzzle, as well as talking about the picture that gets built and how jigsaw puzzles work in general.
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Independent work – once students have mastered how to put the puzzle together with help, it can become part of your independent center work (especially as it’s self checking!). You can even add a movement component by hiding the pieces around the room, and tie in some fine motor control by having students color in the blank version (after they successfully complete the puzzle, of course!).
Like this? Then you’ll love my 10 Snow Themed Literacy and Math Centers. These easy-prep games will get your students working on letters, phonics, numbers and more!
Games included:
1) Snowflake Pick and Cover Letters – Kids will pick letter cards and match them with the letters on the playing mat until all letters have been identified.
2) Snowflake Sight Words Bingo – 8 different bingo cards provided for use in small groups. 40 Pre-primer sight words are included.
3) Snowball Letters and Numbers Sorting – Sort the snowballs according to upper and lowercase or letters vs numbers.
4) Snowflake Vowel Sound Sorting – Print out the sorting mat and place the picture cards in the correct columns based on their vowel sounds.
5) Snowflake Write the Room Alphabet – Hunt around the room for a letter card and match the pictures on the recording sheet to complete the game.
6) Snowman Count and Write Numbers – Kids will practice writing number words 1-10. There are 2 versions included – with numbers and with ten frames.
7) Snowflake Counting Clip Cards – Develop fine motor skills and math skills in this 1-20 counting game.
8) Winter Numbers Memory Match – Flip 2 cards over at a time to find matching number pairs until all the numbers have been matched up.
9) Snowman Ten Frame Mats – Adorable counting mats with ten frames for one to one correspondence and counting practice. You can use this with cotton wool ‘snow’, pompoms, buttons, etc.
10) Snowflake Visual Discrimination Cards- Find the 2 matching snowflakes from a group of 6. There are 16 cards provided.
Check it out for more ready-to-go fun!
Fun Books For Winter:
Other Printables for Your Winter Lesson Plan:
1) Penguin Sight Words Write the Room – Kids will love this printable penguin theme pre-primer sight words write the room activity! It’s perfect for a winter literacy center in kindergarten and even first grade.
2) Penguin and Fish Letter Matching– Printable penguin and fish themed game to pair up upper and lowercase letters.
3) Counting to 20 with Ice Skates – Kindergarten and 1st-grade students will work on counting to 20 and one to one correspondence in this free ice skating activity. Use this as a fun winter math center in your classroom or as a hands-on printable twenty frame game for your homeschool.
4) Snowman Ten Frame Mats – Students in preschool to 1st grade will practice counting, making 10, one to one correspondence, subitizing and writing numbers with these snowman ten frame mats. Use this printable as a fun winter math center in your classroom or as a hands-on addition activity for your homeschooling kids.
5) Winter Printable Worksheets Pack – Your kids will love this 50-page winter packet full of fun activities to help them practice literacy, math and fine motor skills. Preschool and kindergarten students will cut, color, count and much more. This activity pack is perfect for indoor leaning time during the cold winter months.
6) Winter Freeze Number Puzzle Strips – 2 printable winter theme puzzles to practice number order from 1 to 20.
7) Snowball Sorting – Sort out numbers from letters or uppercase letters from lowercase letters in this winter-themed 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
