Create or purchase large cutouts of numbers that you can hold up when you are saying the number. Or you can place the number cutouts around your classroom or on bulletin boards. You can even add pictures to your cutouts. For instance, draw six apples on the number six.
Associate numbers with what the numbers actually represent. For example, if you are trying to teach the number six, show preschoolers six of the same object. Show them six red crayons or six red rubber balls. Once they master this basic counting you can move on to teach them how to add and subtract simple numbers using visual aids. Demonstrate how taking away two red rubber balls from eight leaves six red rubber balls.
Develop arts and crafts projects that incorporate numbers and basic arithmetic in the project. For example, help children make a holiday Christmas card for mom and dad with a specific number of items on the card. Children could place, for instance, four stockings on the card that represents the number of people in his family or pictures of twelve gifts for the twelve days of Christmas.
Use opportunities throughout your day to reinforce lessons in number recognition. For example, ask children how many swings are on a swingset on the playground or how many red flowers are in a garden you pass on a walk together.