Father’s Day Math Puzzles for Preschoolers
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June is here and with it comes Father’s Day, giving you the perfect opportunity to plan a bit of Father’s Day-inspired fun and learning activities for your classroom or your home, and this free Father’s Day Math Puzzles activity will encourage your preschoolers to practice their counting, number recognition, counting sets, and one-to-one correspondence.
I included 8 different puzzles with real pictures and different numeral seriations. You can download the complete pack at the end of the post.
You can use these Father’s Day Math Puzzles as the Math or manipulatives centers, but also as a small group activity, take-home game, or quiet area option.
If your preschoolers are familiar with different number seriations, they are probably going to be able to work independently. However, new students or children who are having difficulties counting or recognizing numbers may need your guidance.
How to Prepare the Math Puzzles
To get these puzzles ready you will need a printer, white cardstock, scissors, a laminator machine, laminator pouches, a basket, and Ziploc bags.
Printer each page using white cardstock. Then cut out each strip and laminate them to protect them and make them last longer.
Also, if you have advanced students and want to make the activity a little more challenging, instead of just cutting the strips with the numbers included, you can cut out the numbers, but remember to keep that set separated from the other one. You don’t want to create frustration in your students. Remember that activities have to be fun, to motivate your preschoolers, instead of discouraging them.
At the end of June, you can put your puzzles in small Ziploc bags, and store them in a box for the following year, so you can have them ready for many Father’s Day in the future.
How to Use the Puzzles
I recommend using these activities individually. That way you can monitor and take notes about what type of seriation each of your preschoolers know, to be able to build upon that and help the ones that don’t recognize all of them.
These Math puzzles are great for strengthening the children’s number recognition, seriation knowledge, concentration, and set creation skills.
Extension Activities
It is great that you can use these Math puzzles for other uses, to have options for your preschoolers. Some of the activities that I can think of are:
- Provide copies of the pages and have your preschoolers cut out the strips and glue them on a piece of construction or regular paper.
- Have the children trace or copy the numbers.
- Match each number with magnet numbers or the same amount of objects.
- Draw the pictures.
Creating Centers
To offer your preschoolers different choices and variations, I will suggest creating different centers using the different free activities. If you don’t use a lot of them at a time, use one of three different ones each week. That way you can keep your children motivated and engaged.
You can even combine them with the free activities I also created using one of my favorite books, Following Papa’s SONG, which has three different packs, one for Literacy, one for Math, and one for Science. They are all FREE and you can get them on the links below.
Math Story Books
As usual, I will always suggest that you never forget books. They are magical instruments for your children’s inspiration and learning.
Books can help you deliver information and knowledge, but they are also great for introducing or supporting a theme and delivering the message you want.
But most importantly, reading books provides children with opportunities to expand their imagination and vocabulary, and it is also an enjoyable activity that every child loves. So, take advantage of them. Here are some examples to put you on the right track.
- Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews. This unique counting will help children develop their visual learning skills, explore creativity, and practice counting numbers, all in one deceptively simple and fun! picture book.
- Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh. This book is the celebration of shapes, color, and innovation, where three clever mice make shapes and even find a funny way to trick a sneaky cat
- Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh. This book is the celebration of shapes, color, and innovation, where three clever mice make shapes and even find a funny way to trick a sneaky cat.
- Ten Apples Up On Top! by Theo LeSieg. This sturdy board book teaches all about numbers. Kids will learn to count to ten–and want to start all over again!
- Little Skill Seekers: Early Math by Scholastic. This book helps children begin building the foundation for a strong number sense, practicing counting, solving problems, comparing quantities, and more.
- Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 by Bill Martin Jr. One hundred and one numbers climb the apple tree in this bright, rollicking, joyous book, which is a companion of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.
Pin It For Later
If you are in a rush and don’t have time to read the post and download the printable but want to save it for later, pin this to your Father’s Day board on Pinterest.
There are all kinds of activities that you can do with this theme. I want to offer some ideas, which you can find in my Father’s Day Celebration for Preschoolers post, that include some free printables, and since the 4th of July is also coming, take a look at the FREE activities I created for that theme too.
And don’t forget your free Father’s Day Math puzzles. You just have to click on the link below to receive your printables.
I hope you enjoy these activities and printables, and that June is memorable, fun, and educational for you and your kiddos.
Be happy, safe, and creative. I wish you well.
Love,
P.S. If you would like to see an article about how to make something specific, please let me know and I will try my best to write it for you. My goal is to help you in any way I can and I don’t like anything better than to post something that you might find useful.
