Sarah Chesworth

12 Counting Activities to Teach Numbers 1-10

Teaching children to count can be a lot of fun with the right counting activities. From dice rolls and hide-and-seek to matching games and puzzles, we’ve compiled 12 simple counting activities that can help teach numbers 1-10.

Counting is an important skill for preschoolers and kindergarteners. This post is packed with 12 easy and fun activities to help children learn counting and number recognition, Activities include counting worksheets, counting books, count-and-write-the-room activities, and more!
Counting is an important skill for preschoolers and kindergarteners. This post is packed with 12 easy and fun activities to help children learn counting and number recognition. Activities include counting worksheets, counting books, count-and-write-the-room activities, and more! Read on!

Read a Counting Book

Counting books are a great place to start teaching counting numbers 1-10. Counting books expose children to math vocabulary associated with counting and are available to go with seasonal themes too!

Counting with Manipulatives

Manipulatives are an excellent tool for teaching counting. It’s so important to give students opportunities to connect numbers and counting with tangible objects. Dice are a great math manipulative to start with. Little ones can start by counting the dots. Roll and Color worksheets are also a fun activity. Little ones will simply roll the dice, count the dots and color the number to match.

counting worksheet
These Roll and Color worksheets are perfect for little ones just learning to count the dots on a die. Children will simply roll one dice and count the number of dots they see. Next, they will find and color that number on the counting worksheet.

Roll and Color worksheets are included for each season in this product, Dice Activities for Preschool and Kindergarten.

Create a Counting Book

A counting book is a fun and engaging way to help your child practice counting with visuals. You can make one together as a class or have students create their own. I recommend assigning each child a number and then having them create a class book page to go with it. They will draw that many objects on their book page so they’ll have a visual representation of each number. Read the book together to get familiar with counting and practicing number recognition.

number counting book
A counting class book can easily be created by students! Simply print this book cover and students can each create a number page to go inside.

Everything you need to create this counting book is included in the product, Learning Numbers Class Book.

If you want to learn more about class books, check out these posts: How to Make Meaningful Class Books and Class Book Ideas for Kindergarten.

Number Matching Game

This fun activity uses cards to help kids learn the association between a written number and its representation. To set up, you will need two sets of cards – one set with objects for students to count and one set with numerals. Then, children will match the corresponding number card with its appropriate word card. As they look for the matches, encourage them to count aloud as they practice their recognition of numbers 1-10.

counting pocket chart
This number-matching game is perfect for a pocket chart. Children will practice counting objects and matching them to the correct number.

This is a great activity for a pocket chart! Cards for this activity are available for every seasonal theme and included in Pocket Chart Activities for Preschool and Kindergarten.

Count and Write the Room

Count and write the room activities are perfect for children learning to count objects in a ten frame. Children will love counting and writing numbers the entire school year with these Kindergarten Count and Write the Room Activities. 10 fun themes are included to keep students engaged and help them practice counting objects.

Counting is an important skill for preschoolers and kindergarteners. This post is packed with 12 easy and fun activities to help children learn counting and number recognition, Activities include counting worksheets, counting books, count-and-write-the-room activities, and more!
Counting activities for little ones should definitely be hands-on! Students can point to each object on the ten frame as they count.

Print these simple activities and have them ready to go in minutes! Just tape the ten frames around the classroom and students will find each one and count the objects and write the number next to the corresponding picture. Such a great center for counting all year!

count and write the room
Count and Write the Room activities are so wonderful for children learning to count! Simply print the ten frames and tape them around the classroom. Next, students will find each ten frame and count the number of objects. Then they will record that number on the recording page. Count and Write the Room activities are available for a variety of seasonal themes!

Count and Write Activities Available:

Thanksgiving Count and Write the Room (Numbers 1-10)

Holiday Count and Write the Room (Numbers 1-10)

Winter Count and Write the Room (Numbers 1-10)

Valentine’s Day Count and Write the Room (Numbers 11-20)

St. Patrick’s Day Count and Write the Room (Numbers 11-20)

Spring Count and Write the Room (Numbers 11-20)

Summer Count and Write the Room (Numbers 11-20)

School Count and Write the Room (Numbers 1-5)

Fall Count and Write the Room (Numbers 1-10)

Halloween Count and Write the Room (Numbers 1-10)

Number Building

Building numbers is a hands-on way for students to experience counting and math. Number tiles can be used with blocks or another math manipulative for number building. Children will simply build a corresponding tower using blocks to match the number.

Building numbers is an easy way to practice counting and number recognition.

Dice Rolling Game

Dice games are great for getting started with counting! In this simple counting game, children will roll the dice, count the dots, and graph that number using the graph. This also helps students with learning to subitize. Subitizing simply means recognizing a quantity without having to count it.

Counting is an important skill for preschoolers and kindergarteners. This post is packed with 12 easy and fun activities to help children learn counting and number recognition. Activities include counting worksheets, counting books, count-and-write-the-room activities, and more!
Counting the dots on a die is a great counting activity for little ones. This activity also lets little ones get familiar with graphing.

You can check out this dice activity and many more in this product, Dice Activities for Preschool and Kindergarten.

Related Post: Kindergarten Math Games with Dice

Number Counting Cards

These printable number-counting cards can be used for craft projects or with circle stickers! Students will simply put the correct amount of stickers on each printable number. They can also be laminated and used with math manipulatives or other objects for counting practice. Numbers 1-10 are included in this free printable.

Preschool and Kindergarten students are usually ready to start learning numbers 1-10! These printable number activities and number worksheets will help little ones learn how to write numbers, number recognition, and more! This post also includes free printables for practice number writing, large printable numbers and number tiles. Plus, resources for planning your number of the week!
One idea for using these large printable numbers is adding circle stickers!

Counting Cards Sort

For this activity, students will sort picture cards to practice counting and identifying a number 1-10 using objects. This is great for focusing on learning just one number. Students will use the header cards to correctly sort the pictures into two categories. For this activity, students were learning the number 1.

Counting is an important skill for preschoolers and kindergarteners. This post is packed with 12 easy and fun activities to help children learn counting and number recognition. Activities include counting worksheets, counting books, count-and-write-the-room activities, and more!
This pocket chart is perfect to practice counting. Students will look for specific quantities of objects.

This activity is great for preschools who may be overwhelmed by counting many objects at a time. They are simply focused on sorting and counting quantities of one. If your students are ready for a challenge they can count and label the other quantities shown using post-it notes. This pocket chart for numbers 1-10 is included in this product, Number of the Week Activities.

Related Post: Number 1 Worksheets

Play Dough Number Mats

These play dough counting mats are a great early learning activity. I recommend printing these counting mats on white cardstock and laminating them! Each counting mat has a number 1-10 for students to build with play dough then includes a ten frame for students to practice counting that many objects.

counting play dough mat
Play dough mats for each number 1-10 are included in my Number of the Week Activities.

Counting Mystery Bags

Counting mystery bags are one of my favorite counting activities. They are super simple to quickly put together! Just put a certain number of objects inside a brown paper lunch sack. Students will just count the objects in that bag! They will love the mystery of seeing what objects are inside the bag!

This is an easy activity to do throughout the school year seasonal objects. For example, if you were doing this activity during the spring each lunch bag may have a certain number of colored plastic eggs inside.

Counting is an important skill for preschoolers and kindergarteners. This post is packed with 12 easy and fun activities to help children learn counting and number recognition. Activities include counting worksheets, counting books, count-and-write-the-room activities, and more!
Counting mystery bags are super simple activity to put together for students. Just add objects to a brown paper lunch sack for students to practice counting.

A recording sheet can be added or students could simply write down their findings in a math journal.

Counting Coloring Pages

Let’s be honest, sometimes you just need something that requires absolutely zero preparation, just print and go! These printable number coloring worksheets are just the trick. They are perfect for introducing the numbers 1 to 10, sending home for extra practice, or even math morning work! Each of these worksheets shows the number for students to color and objects for counting practice.

Are you looking for printable number worksheets that can be quickly printed and used with preschoolers? These number worksheets are simple and perfect for kids learning numbers! They include number tracing worksheets, number coloring worksheets, and other number activities to help preschoolers learn to recognize numbers and the quantity they represent.
These number coloring worksheets are perfect for preschool students just learning numbers. Students will color the number, the number word, and the number of objects. These worksheets are available for numbers 1-10.

Have fun using these counting activities with your preschool and Kindergarten students!

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