The key math tool for preschool children is the manipulative. Manipulatives can be almost anything, from plastic bears or dinosaurs in a variety of colors and sizes to bingo chips to small plastic animals. You can even collect round plastic milk lids. Anything works, as long as it is an item children can use to count and sort. These hands-on items help children visualize numerical concepts.
Manipulatives are also excellent for use in grouping. Children can sort the objects into various colors or by other attributes, such as size or texture.
Preschoolers can learn to measure various items through graphing. Children can create a bar graph using a large grid drawn on butcher paper. For instance, if you write the four seasons along the bottom of the floor graph, children can graph their favorite seasons by putting manipulatives, such as beanbags, into cells of the graph above their favorite seasons. This type of hands-on graphing creates a visual picture of results a preschooler can understand.
Preschoolers can measure items, particularly liquids, using cups and tubes. This activity also can promote an understanding of the concept of conservation. An example involves showing the child two tubes of different sizes, each filled with the same amount of water. The water level will be higher in the thinner tube but lower in the wider tube. The child will see that the amount of water in both tubes is the same, despite the differing heights.
Calendars are useful in helping preschoolers learn to measure time and seasons. Talk about the number of days in a week and weeks in a month use the calendar to show the one-to-one correspondence of one day per square on the grid. Children also can begin to understand the varying numbers of days and weeks per month.