Preschool math games can be so much fun!  This is a great game we use at home to help introduce the tricky concept of graphing.

Graphing likely seems simple to most adults, but to wee ones it can be very tricky!  Preschoolers often get confused with the concepts of ‘bigger/longer’ and ‘more’.  But this simple preschool math game fixes that confusion – in a fun hands-on, run and jump way!

Preschool Math Games: Graphing with Nature

For this game, I simply drew a big grid on the cement with chalk.  I made my grid 5 squares tall and 5 squares wide.

We went on a Nature walk and collected 5 items: Flowers, grass, sticks, pine branches, and leaves.

Like many wee ones, Sammy placed the flowers end to end and then the sticks end to end.  Since the sticks were longer, it looked as though there were more of them.  But, then we tried them in the chalk graph

Putting Our Nature Items into the Graph

Next, we placed our collected items into the graph.  Sammy could do this almost completely on his own – just needing the occasional reminder to start at the bottom square.

Once the nature items were in the graph, it was clearly seen which items we had the most of, and which we had the least.

Using the Graph: Preschool Math Games

Once the nature items were in the graph, we played some fun preschool math games to help solidify the learning.

1. I had Sammy jump and count each nature item.
2. I then had him race to the item we had the most of (which was tricky because there were two!) and then to the one with the least.
3. Sammy loves chalk, so he decided he wanted to write with chalk which ones had the most.  I suggested writing an ‘M’ for most — and he did!!!  Yippee!  He then wrote the numbers for the other items.

This fun math activity accomplished so many things!  We went for a great nature walk to explore and collect nature items for our graph, and then:

• Sammy did some gross motor activities (hopping and running on the graph)
• Fine Motor activities (writing letters and numbers on the graph)
• Tons of Math learning: sorting, graphing, learning about ‘most’ and ‘least’, and counting

Best of all, Sammy loved this activity and asked that we play it again with different nature items.  I was all Preschool Math Game-d out, so decided we would save it for another day .  But he hunted around our backyard and did quite well independently!  I love that this was a fun game for him.

What are some of your favourite preschool math games?