Preschool children will enjoy pretending to be mice while playing the strawberry hunt game that reinforces counting and number recognition skills. Read to the children the book "The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear," by Audrey Wood. The book is about a little mouse that tries to keep the big, hungry, bear from taking his strawberry. Hide several strawberries around the room. The children pretend to be a mouse and find the strawberries that the bear has hidden. Give the children a cheese cut-out with a numbers between one and 10 written on it. The children must find the correct number of strawberries.
Children learn through play. Learning how to add and subtract can be fun for preschoolers while playing the feed the mouse game. Color, cut-out and laminate a large mouse and several pieces of cheese. Write a simple addition or subtraction problem on the mouse with a black erasable marker. The students will use the pieces of cheese as manipulatives to solve the problem and place the correct amounts of cheese on the mouse. This game enhances math skills that prepare children for kindergarten.
Sorting and classifying objects helps preschoolers discover how items are different and alike, and is vital for developing math skills. Children will barely notice they are learning sorting, counting and pattern skills while participating in the mouse hunt game. Place three different colored gummy mice in plastic eggs and hide them around the room. The children will find the eggs, sort them into color groups and count the number of mice in each group. Give children a graph and have them color the correct number of squares. Use the mice to make AB and ABC patterns. The gummy mice make a tasty snack when the lesson is over.
Reinforce children's math skills by involving them in the fun, interactive, mouse game of Give a Mouse a Cookie. Before the lesson, read the book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie," by Felicia Bond. Color, cut out and laminate a cookie jar, a mouse and several chocolate chip cookies. Glue a picture of a mouse on the cookie jar. Each player will roll a die and place the correct number of cookies on the cookie jar. Two dice can be used for children with more advanced math skills.