What To Do

Parent or Teacher Participation - Save your empty egg cartons to create this easy preschool math activity. Print the numbers 1-12 on a piece of paper using a clear, easy to read font with no embellishments. Set the font to size 36. This may vary depending on the font that you use. Hit the tab key between each number to give yourself space to cut out each number. Cut each number out, clipping the corners so that they will fit in each individual egg compartment.

Using scotch tape (or glue if you prefer), attach one number to each egg compartment. Fill the top part of the egg container with dried beans. If possible choose large beans so that small preschool fingers can pick them up easily. Brightly colored beans may be more visible for counting.

Preschooler Participation - Instruct preschoolers to identify the number in each compartment. The first time preschoolers participate in this activity it may be best to identify each number together. Some preschoolers may not be able to recognize the higher numbers. Work with them individually as they participate in this counting activity. Tell preschoolers to count out the correct number of beans to put in each compartment.

Creating a Math Center

Create enough egg carton counting activities for several preschoolers to work at the same time. If you do not already have a math center in your preschool classroom, designate a small table for this purpose. Place one egg carton counting activity at each chair and make them available to your preschool class during center time or free play. Explain to all the preschoolers how to participate in the counting activity as a group before hand.

Additional Preschool Math Activities

Egg Carton Color Matching

This simple color matching game teaches valuable math skills and it is easy for preschoolers to make themselves. Preschoolers will learn the importance of recycling materials that may otherwise be thrown away.

Mitten Matching Math

This entertaining math center activity teaches important early math skills in a way that is fun for preschoolers. It uses things that can be found around the house and can easily be adjusted for use with larger groups of children. This activity can also be done easily in the home setting for a simple activity to do with your preschool or as a part of your home preschool curriculum.

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Helpful Tips for Parents

• Use mathematical language all day: "more than," "less than," "half," "equal," "twice as much." Incidental math vocabulary builds the conceptual foundation formal math builds on.

• Children's questions are assessment data. The questions a child asks reveal their current conceptual level and what they're ready to learn next.

• Avoid academic pressure before age 5. Preschool children's brains are not developmentally ready for formal academic instruction, and premature pressure backfires.

• Answer "why" questions fully and honestly. A child who gets real answers to their questions develops deeper curiosity than one whose questions are dismissed or oversimplified.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should my preschooler be reading before kindergarten?

Reading before kindergarten is possible for some children and developmentally not expected of most. The literacy skills that predict reading success — phonological awareness (hearing sounds in words), letter knowledge, print awareness, and vocabulary — are the appropriate focus before age 5. These skills are built through: reading aloud daily, nursery rhymes and songs, alphabet activities, and rich conversation. A preschooler who loves books, knows their letters, and has a large vocabulary is fully reading-ready, whether or not they can decode words independently.

How much learning time should a preschooler have per day?

All of it — because preschoolers learn continuously through every interaction with their environment. The question of "learning time" implies that learning is separate from living, which it isn't at this age. A preschooler who plays freely, has rich conversations, is read to, helps in the kitchen, plays outdoors, and is exposed to music and art is having the richest possible educational experience. Formal, scheduled "learning time" is less productive than a generally enriched daily environment.

Related reading: See also our kindergarten readiness guide and our vocabulary building guide for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 🔢 Early Numeracy — Hands-on counting, sorting, measuring, and pattern work develops the number sense and mathematical reasoning that formal arithmetic will later build on — and preschool numeracy is one of the strongest predictors of later math achievement.
• ✏️ Pre-Writing Development — Drawing, tracing, and early mark-making develop the fine motor control and visual-motor integration that handwriting requires — making every drawing activity a contribution to writing readiness.
• 📖 Story Structure Understanding — Understanding that stories have a beginning, problem, solution, and ending develops narrative comprehension — the mental schema children use to make sense of increasingly complex texts throughout their school years.
• 📚 Pre-Reading Skills — Activities that involve letters, sounds, rhymes, and print directly build the phonological awareness and letter knowledge that are the two strongest predictors of successful reading development.

This hands on preschool math activity is simple to make using recycled egg cartons. Preschoolers will practice their small motor skills, number recognition skills, and counting skills as they play this counting game.

This preschool math activity would make a wonderful math center. Make several of them to accommodate several preschoolers at a time.

What You Need

Empty egg carton

Large dried beans

Scotch tape

Paper with the numbers 1-12 printed in an easy to read font