10 Easy Counting Activities to Help Preschoolers Learn to Count 1 to 10

Inside: These counting activities will make learning counting enjoyable while building a strong numeracy foundation in your preschoolers. Let the counting adventures begin with these fun-filled counting activities!

Jump to:

• Scroll down for 10 Low Prep Preschool Counting Activities
• Common Questions about Teaching Preschoolers to Count
• More Counting Activities and Resources For You!

Learning to count is an exciting adventure for preschoolers! As they embark on this mathematical journey, they discover a whole new world of numbers. Using objects as their guides, children begin to grasp the concept of counting. They eagerly point their fingers, one by one, saying the numbers aloud with delight. Their eyes light up with joy as they reach higher numbers, mastering the art of enumeration.

Through playful games, songs, and interactive counting activities, preschoolers develop a foundation for numerical understanding. Learning to count becomes a joyful experience, igniting their curiosity and setting the stage for future mathematical exploration.

Scroll down for 10 Low Prep Preschool Counting Activities

Counting Activity 1: Number towers

Materials

• Duplo blocks or Counting Cubes
• Number cards (1 to 10)

Let’s begin:

1. Choose a playing card and count what number it is (e.g count the number of hearts)
2. Let’s make a tower with the same number. Count along as you add a block. 

TIP: Remind your child to add and count one block at a time. This is important for children to learn 1 to 1 correspondence counting.

Related: Use these counting cubes for another easy math activity for your preschooler - Measuring Worms!

Counting Activity 2: Beads onto a pipe cleaner

Materials

• Beads
• Pipe cleaners
• Number cards (1 to 10)

Let’s begin:

1. Pick a number card
2. Thread matching number of beads to the pipe cleaners. Count the beads as you add them.

Counting Activity 3: Counting in nature

Materials

• Stones, sticks or leaves

Let’s begin:

1. Go for a local walk in a park and see what you can find!
2. Count the different nature finds (e.g. flowers, sticks, stones etc)
3. Which item has the most number and which item has the least number?

Counting Activity 4: Dot painting and counting 1 to 10

Materials

• Dot paint markers or dot stickers
• Number cards (1 to 10)
• Paper

Let’s begin:

1. Place a number card on the left side of the paper. 
2. Using the dot paint markers or dot stickers, make the same number of dots on the right side of the paper. 

Counting Activity 5: Bottle Caps Ice Cream Counting Board

Try this cute and hands-on ice cream Counting Activity made with bottle caps and a piece of cardboard!

Counting Activity 6: Beads in the Pots

Materials

• Glass beads 
• Metal pot

Let’s begin:

1. Listen carefully as the adult drops some glass beads, one by one into the metal post.
2. Count the number of beads as you hear them drop into the pot.

Counting Activity 7: Monster Eyes Counting Activity

Children will love counting and adding the eyes for their monster in this cute Monster theme counting activity.

TIP: Using materials that are exciting or unusual like jewels or googly eyes can get children more interested in trying the activity!

Counting Activity 8: Bean bag toss on stairs - how many?

Materials

• Bean bag

Or make your own bean bag:

• Sock
• Rice
• Zip lock bag

Fill the zip lock bag with rice. Put it into a sock and wrap another sock around it to make a ball shape

Let’s begin:

1. Throw the bean bag on to the stairs
2. Count out loud how many steps you need to take to get it
3. For older preschoolers, they can also record the number of steps they climb for each turn and add up the total number of steps after 5 rounds.

Counting Activity 9: Number songs

Materials

• Nothing!

Let’s begin:

Singing number songs is a great way for not only building counting but also for simple subtraction too.

Here are some of our favourite songs for children to learn counting:

• 5 currant buns
• 5 speckled frogs
• 3 little men in a flying saucer
• 5 little monkeys swinging in the trees
• 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed
• Hickory dickory dock 

Counting Activity 10: Numbered Cups and Pompoms

Materials

• Paper cups
• Pom poms
• A marker
• Tweezers (optional)

Let’s begin:

1. Using the marker, label the paper cups from numbers 1 to 5, one number on each cup.
2. Pace the matching number of pom poms into the cups. Remember to count the pompoms as you add them

Common Questions about Teaching Preschoolers to Count

More Counting Activities and Resources For You!

• 5 Hands-on Ways to Learn to Count 1 to 5 with our Counting Hearts Printables 
• Understand the first counting principle, Stable Order
• How to help your child develop a strong number sense in Math
• Try some activities to teach your preschooler about cardinality
• Have fun with your child using these 10 Low Prep Number Activities for Preschoolers
• Practice one-to-one correspondence counting with this Bottle Caps Counting Board
• Use UNO cards to set up fun math activities for your children
• Download this Counting Flowers Printable Activity for preschoolers for fun, hands-on math fun!