Math Learning Activities

When Caroline was a toddler, I found a printable shapes game online that she enjoyed playing for long stretches of time. I decided to make my own version that was a little nicer and had more flexibility to it. This shapes treasure hunt activity is the result.

The shapes treasure hunt activity includes nine colorful shapes and two different playing mats. One mat has six shapes and one has all nine so you can choose the one that best works for your child. This fun activity practices many helpful skills including identifying shapes and colors.

Let’s take a look at how it’s played. It’s very simple and you will be enjoying it with your child in no time at all.

Shapes Treasure Hunt Activity

After you print the three pages, cut out the nine shapes. I highly recommend laminating the shapes and play mats. (I love my Scotch Thermal Laminator!)

Show your little one how the shapes match the outlines on the mat. The colors and outline give clues regarding what to look for. Then “hide” the shapes around the room where your child will find them. When your little one finds a shape, she can come back and put it on the play mat. The mat will also help her keep track of how many more she needs to find and what color they are.

When the mat is full, she’ll know she’s done. When she finds them all, hide the shapes again. And if your toddler or preschooler is like mine, you’ll be doing it many, many times.

Happy Hunting!

Purchase In My Shop

I wanted to find some fun hands-on ways for Caroline to interact with counting numbers. I found some ideas on a few different websites and adapted them for our use.

Hands-on Counting Numbers

This activity was super easy to make! The flowers are from my scrapbooking stash. I wrote on them and the white strip of cardstock with a Sharpie marker. I laminated everything so it will last longer. (I love my laminator!)

Caroline is really enjoying this little activity! She carries the number line around off and on all day. For some reason she finds it totally fascinating.

We played for a while with one of her stuffed animals with me making Bunny talk. Bunny tried to count, but she kept getting stuck or making mistakes. Caroline “taught” her the numbers and how to count to twelve. Very cute and an easy way to check Caroline’s understanding of numbers.

If you are looking for fun numbers and counting activities, check out these sections in my learning shop:

• Math Activities
• Math Worksheets

I saw a version of this color matching activity for preschoolers idea floating around online. I added it to my list of things to potentially do with Caroline (age 28 months) as I thought this might be something that would interest her. We had to make an unexpected trip to Home Depot last evening so it gave me the opportunity to pick up a few paint chip cards. (I already had clothespins.)

This matching colors using clothespins activity is easy to make from paint color samples found at any home improvement store. It’s a great way to practice both subtle differences in colors as well as motor skills.

Caroline likes to point out “matches” all around us, so I was pretty confident she would find it interesting. I also knew she would like the basket I found in my “keep it for something in the future” stash so I decided to present the activity to her in the basket. She loves anything that is a container in almost any format.

Matching Colors From Paint Sample Cards

This color activity is very easy to make. You need two matching cards for each set. Simply cut the strips of one card, making sure to remove all the white edges. Glue each strip to the top of a clothespin. Do this for all four colors on the card. Repeat for each color sample card. You can make as many sets as you wish. I purposely chose colors that were quite different so it wouldn’t be too challenging. I wanted it to be fun, not overwhelming.

I wasn’t sure if Caroline would be able to manipulate the clothespins since they are fairly sturdy. She wasn’t. She immediately set to the task of matching the colors, but couldn’t figure out how to squeeze the clothespins and clip them to the card. (She was only moderately interested in any instruction on how to do so. LOL!)

So we’ll see how this goes later in the day and tomorrow. I may just put it away for another month and get it out again later. In any case, I’ve learned that she matches colors quite well but we need to further develop her motor skills. This is what I probably would have expected before I handed her the basket but it’s always nice to see these things in action.