Math Manipulatives for Preschool
Math manipulatives are an important tool for teaching math to preschoolers. They provide a hands-on way to explore math concepts. There are so many awesome math manipulatives out there. I like to use them when I’m teaching math lessons and or use them in centers. Math manipulatives can be something simple, like cotton balls, or you can get higher-quality ones from stores like Lakeshore Learning or Learning Resources.
Today I’m sharing my top math manipulatives for preschoolers. These are the ones I’ve used and think are the most effective.
Counting Bears
So much learning can happen with these little bears! You can use them to sort, count, make patterns, and even for dramatic play! They are also great for teaching beginning addition or subtraction.
There are so many counting bears to choose from. We like the classic counting bear set. They also have a family bear set, which includes three different sizes of bears.
Math Link Cubes
We are also big fans of math link cubes! (Also known as Unifix™ cubes.) These are awesome for counting, sorting by color, making patterns, and simple addition or subtraction. I also love that these work on fine motor skills when you snap them together.
Ten Frame Manipulatives
Learning about ten frames (and even five frames!) is important for preschoolers. Having math manipulatives for this is so helpful!
I love this magnetic ten frame because you can use it while teaching a class without the counters falling off.
Pattern Blocks
These colorful shapes are great for making patterns, learning about shapes, sorting by color or other attributes, and making designs with shapes. There are really quite a few ways to use these pattern blocks!
Mini Erasers
Do you ever see those mini erasers in the Target dollar section? These are fabulous for math! You can use them for counting, practicing one-to-one correspondence, sorting, making patterns, ten frames, and more!
You can also find mini erasers on Amazon, but I usually just pick them up from Target.
Foam Dice
You can use dice for so many math activities! I love foam dice because they are soft, which means they are quiet! (All the teachers say hallelujah!!)
Using dice for games helps kids with subitizing (knowing what the dots are without counting every dot each time), counting, adding, subtracting, comparing, and more!
What other math manipulatives do you love?
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My kids love using the foam dice! They make up their own games and I love that they are learning to recognize the number without counting. My dice are being loved so much that they are beginning to disintegrate. I also love that they are a quiet, independent activity.
I love the mini erasers and every time I look at target I can’t find any.
We have a set of the counting bears and they’re fun to learn with. I just need to find more structured activities with them.
Pattern blocks are awesome. We’d love them!
I love all the math manipulatives to help my students learn, but one thing I don’t have are the ten frames. So I am would love to have these for the students to be engaged and learn with.
I love the counting bears as there are so many concepts to explore, color, size, counting, 1:1 correspondence to name a few.
I love them all. The mini erasers are my favorite.
Great list of manipulatives! Ten frames are great for Kinders, and ALL hands on manipulatives. I love rekenreks as well.
I would like to win the foam dice. We use a lot of mini erasers and I love them but we don’t have any foam dice
These are great ideas!