Manipulatives center preschool

I am so excited to talk about the math/manipulatives center in a pre-k classroom. Math is one of my favorite subjects to teach. It's so rewarding when a student makes the connection with numbers, counting, and one to one correspondence. After that, it all seems to click! I am blessed to have so many great math tools in my class. I don't put everything out at the same time. Instead, I focus on different learning objectives and narrow the math manipulatives down. I also make a lot of items to…

2D shape activities for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten. Shape mats (legos, geoboards, etc), play dough mats, posters, sorting mats, worksheets, & MORE.

How to set up the math center in your preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten classroom. FREE path game!

When I moved to Pre-K, I completely changed how I ran my classroom. I went to a more center based, student led system, as opposed to a teacher led classroom. The biggest thing I had to adjust to, was I let the STUDENTS CHOOSE what center they go to, I let STUDENTS CHOOSE when they change centers. And do you know what? It was NOT mad chaos like I expected! Once we set expectations and taught them the appropriate social skills to communicate, it was so easy! This post does contain links, both…

All year we’ve been having fun with colors, but these past few weeks we had a fun pom pom center! This included a pompom drop and a place to sort the pompoms by color. I came across some great ideas for pompom drops on Pinterest, but this was just a quick throw-together. I would love to attach these to wood instead of just paper! Anyway, I began with cardboard tubes (I’m such a hoarder) and painted them 6 different colors using 2-3 coats of regular tempera paint. Then I attached them with…

These 5 hands-on ways to sort by color are a great way to engage students in this essential early learning skill!

A few weeks ago I went to a local consignment sale and found so many wonderful resources for great deals! There were thousands of books and tons of teaching supplies! One of the items I picked up was this set of shape manipulatives. They came in red, blue, and yellow in a variety of sizes. Some shapes are big, some are small, some are thick, and some are thin. I love the variety! We have been looking at shapes and really focusing on the four basic shapes: rectangles, triangles, squares, and…

Activities that develop early math skills are our favourites! We love working on our number recognition, counting skills, subitising and 1:1 correspondence. This “Build a City” activity…