Children use muffin cups and manipulatives such as counting chips to practice counting. Children can play in pairs or individually. Because the teacher writes the target number on the board, this game can also be adapted to practice addition, with children counting the sum into their muffin cups.
Children play this game as a group. Numbered cards are shown to the children then hidden around the room. After finding all the cards, kids put them in order. The number of cards (0-5 or 0-20) depends on the skill level of the children. Teachers may also number shapes such as maple leaves or hearts to go with that month's theme.
This game works best as a rotation station. Children sort numbered paper fish in order and "feed" them to a shark (usually a decorated box). Some teachers reach their hands through the back of the box so they can grab the fish as the children feed them to the shark.
Children toss bottle caps into coffee cans or #10 cans. Cans are numbered and children must toss the correct number of bottle caps into each can. For increased difficulty, cans can be placed in random order, but children must fill each in numerical order.
Children sort themselves into any numbered corner of the room. The child who is "it" eliminates children from the game by calling out numbers (with his eyes closed) or drawing numbered chips out of a bag. Play continues as children move to new corners, until only one child remains.
Counting dots on the dominoes and comparing "hands" provides good practice for preschoolers. Similar to the card game, domino war is played with dominoes and children collect winning hands until all the dominoes are gone.
Bingo cards offer preschoolers the opportunity to practice number recognition. When children get a row up, down or diagonally, they win. Teachers may also choose to play Blackout Bingo, where every square has to be filled to be a Bingo.
Children practice adding in this dice game. Each time a sum is reached, that number is marked on a number strip. The first player to mark off all numbers on his strip wins the game.