In early learning classrooms, young children learn foundational math skills through playful learning activities. Little ones are naturally drawn to learning about animals, making animals an ideal way to introduce math concepts in fun and meaningful ways. In this article, we share engaging animal-themed activities and children’s books to support young children’s developing math skills.
Most early learning classrooms have a variety of animal toys available for play. (If you don’t already have a supply of animals, you can find affordable options here and here). These simple toys are perfect for sorting into categories, an engaging math exploration activity the children in your care are sure to enjoy!
Toy animals can be sorted by color, size, or pattern. You can also invite children to place the land-dwelling animals together, and group all of the sea-dwelling animals together. This helps children practice classification and categorization, two important foundational math concepts. Once the animals have been sorted, you can encourage the children to count the number of animals in each group, and then compare the size of the groups to determine which one has a larger number of animals. This helps children begin to feel comfortable with the process of comparison, another useful math skill.
This simple, fun activity requires just three items for easy set-up. All you will need are a few sheets of construction paper, a marker, and animal crackers!
Using the marker, divide the paper into four quadrants and then write a number between 1 and 4 in each quadrant. Invite children to place the corresponding number of animal crackers on each square. This straightforward activity gives children an opportunity to practice some important math skills, including number recognition, counting, and one-to-one correspondence.
Not only can animals be counted, compared, and categorized, but they can also be measured! For this activity, you will need toy animals and measuring tools, such as a ruler, counting cubes, or a tape measure. Invite children to measure each animal, and then describe the size of the animal, using measurements like height and width. You might even help the children write down the measurements to give them some practice writing and recognizing numbers.
Once you and the children finish measuring the animals, you might talk together about using the measurements to figure out which animal is the largest and which is the smallest. This hands-on activity introduces children to foundational concepts in measurement, comparison, and dimensions.
This simple story, written and illustrated by Keith Baker, follows a family of seven lively ducklings as they prepare to fly for the very first time. The story’s rhyming text and bold illustrations make it a fun way to introduce counting and foundational math skills to the little ones in your care.
A free read-aloud of this book is available on Youtube.
This children’s book, written by Karl Newson and illustrated by Kate Hindley, uses simple and engaging illustrations to introduce basic concepts of comparison and categorization to young children.
A free read-aloud of this book is available on Youtube.
This fun children’s book by Susie Ghahremani helps children practice counting from 1-10 as they follow along with a group of cats. The process of stacking, which is also part of this story, introduces basic geometry skills to young children, and encourages them to think spatially as they consider the variety of ways to stack cats!
A free read-aloud video of this book is available on Youtube.
