While walking through a classroom I noticed children playing a game with dice and pompoms. I loved that the kids were practicing lots of one-to-one counting as well as writing numerals and using their pincer grasp. This non-competitive game provided lots of learning opportunities while reinforcing concepts surrounding the fall season.
I thought I’d share some additional fun ways to use dice with young children.
(Click on the photos for a link to the websites.)
Oriental Trading offers these larger foam dice. The larger size allows children to touch and count the dots with greater ease.
At Stir the Wonder blog there is information about this very toddler appropriate first experience with dice. I love that the children are physically manipulating the blocks as you count the number you are adding. How tall can you build? This could be played with any kind of stacking blocks as well.
You can also extend this idea to more physical activities. Jump, clap or hop the number the die shows. Run as long as it takes for someone to count to the number on the die. Drop pompoms or balls into a basket or through a paper towel tube to correspond with the number on the die, etc.
The Measured Mom blog offers this game page free. Matching the die face to the printed one is a good introduction. You can count the dots as you are looking for matches.
One Perfect Day blog has an in-depth post that includes a variety of ways to practice a variety of math concepts using dice along with loose parts (small items like stones, pompoms, beads, etc). I love the idea of children actually moving items to represent the same “picture” they see on the die.
Inspiration Made Simple blog has this fun game connecting dice to the parts of a robot. There is a free download included in the post.
These ideas should provide many hours of good number fun. Keep on rolling!
Aldersgate Preschool 