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?
For just a few days, enter to win one of these math manipulatives!
My students love the counting bears and the shapes. We frequently use them for color matching activities. I would love to incorporate the link cubes more often in our classroom- they are great for working on those small hand muscles and strength!! With all of the restrictions on sharing materials right now, any and all of these materials would be amazing to have in our classroom!
thank you so much for your site, it has been day/week/life saving on more than one occasion!
These are awesome, my students would love them!
These all look great! Would love these to use with my granddaughter. The beats would be fun for her. I’ve never thought about using mini erasers – great idea.
I love them all. Easers or Bears or really any of the items would be a wonderful addition to my activity box.
These are so fun! I love ways to make counting and math hands on, and these are such great ideas, I love the mini-erasers!
These are great classroom items.
I use manipulatives for everything! Any I use anything I can find (those erasers are often hard to find at target) Even bottle caps and fish tank stones! I’d love to have some more “professional” supplies. Not sure what I’d pick. The magnetic ten frames are the only ones I haven’t seen before…
I remember using math blocks to learn multiplication! It made math so much more fun. Would love to have these manipulative as my 4 year old is so into math right now. He wakes up asking, “Mom, is 10 plus 2 twelve?”
These look like such great resources. I would love to add them to my collection!
What great tools!! We love math!!!