Preschoolers love the idea of being "bigger." This math project addresses number units and measuring, estimation and an introduction to graphing. Using a tape measure, have children measure out a piece of string or yarn to the length they were at birth and cut it. Using plastic or wooden blocks, have children build a tower as high as the piece of string will stretch. Have the children graph the height in inches and do the same for their height now. Children can also measure and build blocks of each other. Compare how much they have grown and graph this. Repeat the exercise every few months.
Provide children with 10 white pieces of construction paper for pages and two colored pieces for book covers and staple them together to create booklets. Have the children number the pages 1 through 10 at the top of each page. Provide magazines and scissors and have the children look for pictorial representations of the numbers, such as one baby or two cars. Children will be reinforcing number identification, sorting and counting.
Once children have grasped the concept of a penny, a nickel and a dime and are able to identify that, for example, a dime equals 10 pennies, provide them with daily opportunities to "buy" items with play coins, such as snacks at snack time or stamps from a pretend post office. Provide larger items for them to budget for. Have children keep track of their purchases on their own charts. At the end of the week, have them graph their spending according to types of purchases, such as food versus books or stamps versus toys.
Using paper plates, have children create "pizza." They can paint the plates red and decorate them with shredded yellow paper for cheese and brown paper pepperoni slices. Have the children cut the pizza in half three times so they have eight slices. Using the slices, children can demonstrate that eight slices equals a one whole pizza or four slices equals one half. Extend the lesson by having them but and sell slices using play money and discussing how much of their pizza they have left.