Cover the bottom of a jelly roll pan, or a cookie sheet with a raised edge, with sand, granulated sugar or cornmeal. Draw a number in this mixture near the top of the pan. Invite the kids to use their fingers and trace the indention that was made. After getting a feel for the shape of the numeral, the children draw the same number below the first one. Smooth the mixture and repeat the process with other numbers.
Make flash cards that are edible using graham crackers and store-bought icing in a tube. Instruct the kids to break each cracker along the lines to make small, individual cards. With your guidance, help the children to write numerals on each cookie card with the icing. Instruct older children to complete simple addition and subtraction problems with the number cards by including cookies marked with plus and minus signs. When finished, the kids eat this mathematical craft.
Use chalk to draw a grid a concrete slab or on a large sheet of paper that can be taped to the floor. Write a number in each square. Provide bean bags to play this number game. Call out numbers and challenge the children to throw the bean bags where they land on that number on the grid. Give older children two bean bags to complete an addition problem. If the number seven is called, a bean bag needs to land in the five box and two box to equal seven.
Mark numbers on several paper plates. Provide an assortment of dried pasta and encourage younger children to glue pasta on the plate to equals that number. Design simple addition problems by drawing a line in black marker to divide the plate in two. If, for example, the plate has the numeral five written on it, the child comes up with the equation and glues three pieces of pasta on one side and two pieces on the other. Draw the plus sign and the answer to this addition problem is five, matching the original number on the plate.
Help children look in newspapers and magazines for the numerals from one to 10. Older children search for numbers to a higher level, such as 20. Cut or tear out as many examples as possible. Glue the numbers on a sheet of construction paper in numeric or random order to create a number collage.