Are you looking for engaging activities to help your students improve their number sense skills? Kindergarten math centers are a great way to add number practice to your daily routine. In this post, I’m going to share some of my favorite center activities that make number practice hands-on and engaging for your students!
Using Centers for Number Practice
Helping our students strengthen their number sense skills can take a lot of repetition. They need to practice skills like counting and number identification many times before they truly stick! However, it can be tricky to keep our students engaged in the repetition needed to master these skills.
That’s where centers come in handy! Hands-on activities are perfect for keeping students motivated to practice numbers. Since center activities are reviewing skills that students have already been introduced to, students can complete these activities independently. Plus, centers are a great way to introduce variety to number sense practice by switching up the manipulatives and task cards that students are using.
Kindergarten Math Centers: Practicing Numbers to 30
To see the benefits of kindergarten math centers in action, I’m going to show you the wide variety of number sense skills that students can strengthen using centers. These activities are focused on helping students practice numbers to 30. (If your students aren’t quite ready for this, you can focus on numbers to 10 instead. Check out my blog post where I share a variety of hands-on math centers that focus on numbers 1 to 10.)
Number Identification
Do your students need to practice identifying numbers? You can incorporate number identification into many different center activities.
This student is practicing number identification along with counting with this color by number center. After counting the ten frames on the color key, they find and color the matching number.
Number Formation
You can use a variety of centers to help your students practice number formation! They can explore the shape of each number by building them with rubber bands on geoboards. Play dough is also a great tool for students to practice number formation, and it’s always a hit with students!
Students can also practice number formation during centers with traceable activities.
These number formation task cards can be laminated so students can practice number formation over and over again. You can also bind them into number writing practice books!
Counting to 30
Counting mats are an easy way to add some fun to practicing one-to-one correspondence. You can use a variety of themed mats and manipulatives to keep the learning fresh and engaging!
Students can choose a numbered card and add the correct number of manipulatives to the jar-shaped counting mat. In this case, googly eyes are a fun choice around Halloween in October. For other seasons and holidays, you could add themed mini-erasers, colored pompoms, or any other seasonal manipulatives that will increase the engagement for this counting activity.
Ordering Numbers
Do your students need more practice with ordering numbers? You can use an activity like this one to help students identify the number that comes before and after a given number.
If you use number task cards for other center activities (like the counting mat activity above), students can put those cards in order if they finish their task early. This would be a great fast finisher activity to keep them on track until it’s time to rotate to the next activity.
Modeling Numbers to 30
Our kindergarten students also need to practice modeling numbers in different ways. This helps them build a strong foundation of number sense that will help them better understand future math concepts.
For example, this ten frame activity helps students visualize that a teen number is a ten and five ones. Creating a foundational understanding of place value through modeling numbers will help students be more confident mathematicians!
Plus, math centers make it easy to present the same activity in a different way to keep students motivated and engaged! For example, the ten frame activity can presented as a real-world application of loading school buses. This helps students see math in the world around them!
Comparing Numbers
Students can also count and compare numbers using engaging centers activities.
They can count a variety of different objects on a task card and then determine which has more.
For even more hands-on counting practice, students can build two stacks of snap cubes. They can use these stacks to determine which number is greater.
Once they have chosen the larger number, they can write it on the recording sheet.
Putting It All Together
Finally, students can continue to practice these number sense skills by combining several skills into one center activity.
For example, this center has students count the dots in a ten frame, identify the corresponding number, and then write that number on the recording sheet. This is a great opportunity for students to practice tasks with multiple steps!
Printable Kindergarten Math Centers
Would you like to add more number practice to your daily routine? I have created a set of 27 Kindergarten Math Centers to save you a lot of prep time! These low-prep centers will help your students practice numbers to 30 with a variety of hands-on activities.
Having a variety of activities on hand will help you ensure that students stay on track and engaged in number practice. They will be able to strengthen their number sense skills as they get the important skill practice they need.
This set of math activities includes digital, black-and-white, and full-color options so you can choose the format that works best for your students.
Head over to my TPT store if you’d like to take a closer look at everything included in this set of kindergarten math centers.
Save These Math Centers for Kindergarten
Be sure to save this post so you can come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite Pinterest board of teaching ideas. You’ll be able to quickly find these kindergarten math centers when you’re looking for fun ways to help your students practice numbers to 30.
