Number symbols can be used to identify small objects that the children can use to collect, organize or decorate. Print out a fishbowl template, some colorful fish and have the children label the fish with numbers. Of course, they can also decorate their fish and their fishbowls. But the entire time you are doing the exercise, stress the importance of having the children identify their fish by number. This will make them familiar with the symbols and names of the numbers before they start to add or subtract them.
Color by number sheets can help children recognize the numbers when they are looking for them on paper. The children will be so busy connecting the numbers on the picture to the numbers on the colors that they will not even recognize that they are learning. If you want to let the children be creative, they can even decide which colors match with which numbers. Also, if you have the time and materials, you can rewrap the crayons with wrappers with corresponding numbers.
Making trains, or other connecting themed objects, can help the children understand the order of the numbers. They can color the trains, add the numbers and then use the trains to put the numbers in order from lowest to highest. By the end of school, they will know how to count. For advanced children, you might want to take the numbers out of sequence and see if the children can remember which numbers are larger. For example, is 1 smaller than 3, and is 3 smaller than 6?