New Year’s Hats Count and Clip Cards for Preschoolers

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Are you looking for a fun and easy counting activity for the end of the year? This set of New Year’s Hats Count and Clip Cards can be used at home, in the classroom, or placed in a busy bag to entertain your kiddos while you are traveling! They are super easy to set up. All you need is a copy of the free printable found at the end of this post, and some clothespins.

This Math activity is so much fun, that your preschoolers will happily do it, without even knowing that they are learning, and building up on essential skills such as:

Counting – to find out how many hats are on each card.
Number recognition – when they select the correct number to place the clothespin on.
One-to-one correspondence – as they count and find the right number.
Fine motor – they pinch the clothespins to place them on the cards.
Concentration – when they focus their attention on doing the activity.

New Year’s Hats Count and Clip Cards

The best way to help children learn is with hands-on activities, and this New Year’s Hats Count and Clip Cards will allow your preschoolers to do just that. This printable contains four pages with six different cards each, for a total of twelve colorful counting cards.

You only need a few materials to get this printable ready, which are:

I will strongly suggest printing this resource on white cardstock, cutting out each card, and laminating them. That way you will have your cards available for several New Year’s celebrations.

If you don’t want your children to use the clothespins or they are not ready developmentally, you can substitute them with mini pom-poms, buttons, bingo chips, mini erasers, or any other small manipulative.

How to Use The New Year’s Hats Count and Clip Cards

These cards can be used as a small group activity, Math center option, take-home game, and Quiet area option. Give a child the cards and clothespins (or small manipulatives). The child needs to count the objects on each card and place the clothespin on top of the correct number.

Additional Ideas

I like to give my kids choices and switch things around. You can do that with these cards too. These are some examples of how you can take advantage of these cards and make variations on the activity:

Add in manipulatives such as bingo chips, mini erasers, buttons, pom-poms, mini hats, or any other small manipulatives, and have the children count the objects on each card and match the correct number with the same amount of objects.

Have the children trace the numbers with dry-erase markers, or copy them on white paper using pencils, crayons, or regular markers.

You can put numbers at the end of each clothespin and have them match the clothespin with the correct number on each card.

Have them count the objects on each card and match that number with the correct magnetic number, instead of using a clothespin.

Get Them Moving With Counting Activities

Since every child loves to be outside, use this opportunity to get them moving with New Year’s counting activities, to extend the use of the new year’s hats. Some ideas I can give you are:

Hide mini hats in the playground or yard and make a game of finding the hats and counting who finds the most.

Place numbers outside the mini hats and put the hats in a basket. Have the children line up and select a hat from the basket. Make a game by having each child read the number on the selected hats and jump as many times as the number in the hat.

Have a hat race dividing the children into two groups. Then one member of each group will take a turn to form a running pair from point A to point B with a mini hat on a spoon without dropping it. When all the children finish running with their hats, each group has to count how many hats made it to the finish line. The group that has the most hats wins.

Enhance Their Learning by Reading Books

I probably sound like a broken record but I cannot miss the opportunity to remind everybody who reads my posts about the importance of reading books to children, no matter their age.

Reading to them not only creates a special bond between you and your children but also teaches them vocabulary, different types of concepts, that words have meaning, that you read from top to bottom and left to right, different concepts, etc. The list goes on and on, and all of this provides them with the necessary base for them to learn how to read and write, among many other important benefits.

Below you will find some samples of books related to the new year. You can find them at your local library, in used bookstores, and on Amazon. If you are interested in purchasing any of them, by clicking on the picture my direct link will take you to Amazon right away.

Chinese New Year for Kids by Cindy Roberts.
Dim Sum for Everyone by Grace Lin.
Celebrating Chinese New Year: History, Traditions, and Activities by Eugenia Chu.
Dragon Dance – A Chinese New Year by Joan Holub.
Fortune Cookie Fortunes by Grace Lin.
Holidays Around the World: Celebrate Chinese New Year: With Fireworks, Dragons, and Lanterns by Caroline Otto.
Grandfather Tang’s Story by Ann Tompert.
Happy, Happy Chinese New Year by Demi Hitz.
My First Chinese New Year by Karen Katz.
Lanterns and Firecrackers – A Chinese New Year Story by Jonny Zucker.
Lion Dancer by Kate Waters.
Bringing In the New Year by Grace Lin.
Moonbeams, Dumplings, and Dragon Boats by Nina Simonds.
One Is a Drummer: A Book of Numbers by Roseanne Thong.
Round Is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes by Roseanne Thong.
Ruby’s Wish by Shirin Yim Bridges.
Sam and the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn.
The Dancing Dragon by Marcia K. Vaughan.
Celebrating Chinese New Year: Nick’s New Year by Rosa Drew.
The Five Chinese Brothers by Claire Huchet Bishop.
The Runaway Rice Cake by Ying Chang Compestine.
This Next New Year by Janet S. Wong.
Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel.

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 Math or New Year’s board on Pinterest to have it available when you need it.

I hope you find these New Year’s Hats Count and Clip Cards will help entertain your kiddos and make your job a little easier. Don’t forget to get your printable! You just have to click on the button below to download it and start using it.

Be happy, safe, and creative. I wish you well.

Love,

P.S. Please let me know if this activity works for you, and if you would like to see an article or a printable about how to make something specific, please let me know and I will try my best to create 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.