Polar Bear Counting & Writing Mats for Preschoolers
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I love polar bears. They are beautiful, powerful, and different! They inspire me to create these free Polar Bear Counting & Writing Mats, to provide your preschoolers with a hands-on and fun counting and writing activity this winter. They would be the perfect addition to your winter math center for sure!
Importance of Counting, One-to-One Correspondence, and Writing Skills
It is important that preschoolers understand math concepts to set the foundation for the development of their number and math skills in the future. Also, when children develop a strong foundation in the number sense, they will be able to build their problem-solving skills, which are extremely important for their future.
Now counting has to do with memorizing numbers in the correct order. Many preschoolers can count to five, some up to 10, and a few can count to 20 or higher, but it is essential that they match their counting abilities with their one-to-one correspondence skills.
One-to-one correspondence is the ability to match objects to the right number. This means that children need to understand that they need to say “one” when they count one object, “two” when they count two objects, and so forth.
When both skills, counting, and one-to-one correspondence, work together, children have a better opportunity to develop those important skills, to set up a strong foundation for more complex mathematical operations in the future. Now, there is also an opportunity to tie these skills with writing as well. In this case, children can trace the numbers, and the ones that have more advanced skills can copy the words next to them. That way they can practice their writing abilities as well.
Polar Bear Counting & Writing Mats
This activity is very easy to put together, and you will only need a handful of materials which are:
- FREE Polar Bear Counting & Writing Mats printable (found at the end of this post).
- White paper or cardstock.
- Laminator, and laminator pouches, or
- Dry-erase pockets.
- Polar Bear Mini Erasers.
- Pencils, markers, colored pencils, crayons, or dry-erase markers.
This printable offers you one page for each of the numbers 0 – 20. If you want to use the activities for one-time use, you only need to print the selected page on regular printer paper. If you want to use the pages multiple times, print them out in white cardstock and laminate them, or place them in dry-erase pockets.
Place the pages and polar bear mini erasers in your math and writing centers, and invite your preschoolers to read the number on each page aloud, count the dots in the grid, select the same amount of mini erasers, place them on the ice, and trace and write the number. To trace and copy the number words they need to use dry-erase markers. If they want to copy the word on a sheet of paper, they need to use pencils, markers, colored pencils, or crayons.
How to Use The Polar Bear Mats
These Polar Bear Counting & Writing Mats can be used in many ways such as:
- Small group activity
- Math center option
- Writing center
- Take home game
- Quiet area option
Before you place the mats in the different centers it is recommended to introduce them to your preschoolers first. Circle time might be the perfect time to do this. There is no point to place them in centers if they don’t know how to use them first.
A good way to do this is by:
- Introduce the mats to the children and talk about each number and the different characteristics of the shape of the numbers.
- Talk about small and large numbers, such as number 2 having fewer pictures than number 5 because it is a smaller number.
- Explain what they have to do.
Benefits of The Polar Bear Mats
This activity will allow preschoolers to practice these skills:
- Number recognition (identifying the number on the mat before counting).
- Counting abilities (counting the ghosts).
- Fine motor development (tracing and writing number words).
- Hand-eye coordination and control (placing the manipulatives in the squares).
- Concentration skills (focusing on the different tasks).
- One-to-one correspondence (counting the manipulatives to be added).
- Language development (counting out loud number sequence).
- Tracing and Writing abilities (tracing the numbers and copying them).
Books About Polar Bears
Read polar bear-related books with your children. This practice will benefit your children in a number of ways, as I said before.
You can find them at your local library, used book store, or in Amazon. For your convenience, I added my direct Amazon links to the pictures. If you like any, just click on it and it will take you directly to the site.
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 it to one of your Pinterest boards, so you can have it available when you need it.
I hope you enjoy these mats and help your preschoolers practice their counting skills. Grab your printable by clicking on the link below and type your information. Don’t worry. You won’t be subscribed twice if you are a friend already.
Be happy, safe, and creative. I wish you well.
Love,
P.D. Please let me know if you want me to create anything special. My goal is to help you in any way I can, and I would love you to find something useful on my site.
By the way, if you are thinking about changing the décor in your classroom this spring but don’t want to spend a lot of money, I invite you to check out the sets I offer in my store HERE.
