Number Sense Activities for Kindergarten

Looking for a hands-on and engaging way to practice number sense with your kindergarten for numbers from 1 to 20? These Number Sense Clip Cards will help your kindergartener or first grader practice their number sense for numbers 1 to 20 while training those fine motor skills at the same time. This engaging number sense activity for kindergarten is perfect for parents, teachers, and homeschoolers looking to practice or teach number recognition, counting, and one-to-one correspondence with their learners.

Number Sense Clip Cards Activity for Kindergarten

In early childhood education, building a strong foundation in number sense is paramount as it serves as the stepping stones for math skills they learn later on such as addition and subtraction.

Kindergarten is a critical phase where young learners begin to explore the fascinating world of numbers, and introducing them to engaging activities can make a significant difference.

These number sense clip cards are a versatile teaching tool that aids in reinforcing counting, one-to-one correspondence, subitizing, and number recognition. This a simple, low prep activity and only requires clothespins or circle counters to do the activity. This is an easy and fun way to sneak in some fine motor skills with numbers.

When they use these number clip cards learners will be practicing the following skills:

Counting
Subitizing
One-to-one correspondence
Number recognition
Fine motor skills
Simple addition

That’s a whole bunch of skills with one simple printable. We hope your learners have fun learning and practicing their number sense with these Number Sense Clip Cards. Simply print these number clip cards, laminate and you are ready to go.

What is Number Sense? – Building Number Sense in Kindergarten

Number sense is the ability to understand, relate and connect numbers in a meaningful way. Gaining a strong foundation in number sense at a young age is important as it serves as a fundamental building block for future mathematical understanding.

In the context of kindergarten, number sense would extend beyond the ability of just number recognition. It would require students to grasp the concept of quantity, understanding number relationship and subitizing.

These are some of the ways in which learners can practice and build upon their number sense:

Counting
Place value
Subitizing (Dots or items)
Ten frame
Dice (1 to 6 and adding two or more dice together)
Tally marks
Finger counting
Dominoes

Teaching Number Sense to Kindergarten Students

Wheel clip cards have more options that the normal clip cards you might be used to. Learners will have to choose between more options making this activity a bit tougher than normal clip cards. There can also be more than one option, so learners will have to realize that and be able to select all the correct answers.

For this reason, I would recommend using these only once the learner is familiar with the concept and needs further practice. Using the number sense clip cards to introduce the topic to the learner might be overwhelming and might result in confusion towards the learner.

Hands-on activities are extremely important in developing number sense in kindergarten learners. Hands-on activities actively engage children in the learning process and make learning fun and engaging.

As learners are identifying the different number representations and clipping the correct answers they are actively engaging in the learning process. This makes is so much more fun for the learners.

What’s better is that these clip cards help in training kindergarteners with more than one skill. The clip cards can be used both to train those fine motor skills (clipping clothespins is hard work!) and at the same time practice whatever concept they need to work on.

Using the Number Sense Clip Cards – Number Sense Activities for Kindergarten

In these number sense cards, there are two sets of wheels. One set focuses on number sense for numbers 1 to 10 while the other set focus on number sense for numbers 1 to 20. Simply choose which set of numbers you would like your learner to practice on and print those out.

Numbers 1 to 10:

Each of the cards contain the following options:

Ten Frame
Dice
Tally Marks
Domino
Fingers

There are a total of 8 options, of which 5 of them match the number in the center. The other 3 options do not match the number.

Numbers 11 to 20:

Each of the cards contain the following options:

Ten Frame
Tally Marks
Place Value (Base 10 Blocks)
Dominoes
Dice

There are a total of 8 options, of which 5 of them match the number in the center. The other 3 options do not match the number.

Materials and Prepping the Activity

These are the materials required to prep this number sense activity for your students.

Wooden clothespin (these are colored)
Wooden clothespin
Printer
Laminator (highly recommended)
Laminating sheets

To get this activity ready, print out the pages. Laminate the pages. I highly recommend doing this, especially if the activity is going to be used multiple times.

Cut apart to create the clip cards.

Present the activity with clothespins and you’re all set!

Learning Numbers 1 to 20 – Number Sense Activities in Kindergarten

If your learners are just getting the hang of their number sense, start off with the smaller numbers before heading over to the larger numbers.

For e.g. start with the number 3 or a number they might be more familiar with.

Ask the learner to see whether they can identify any number representations that match the number 3. If so, they can clip those.

Then slowly explain about the other parts for example the number of dots in the dominoes make up a number, and likewise the dots in the ten frame.

The number of tally marks can be counted to get a number and then it becomes a set when it reaches 5.

As students slowly gain more practice and become familiar with their concepts of number sense they will be able to deduce and make connections quicker. As their number sense concepts improve, they will be able to make connections between numbers and understand concepts such as greater, smaller, addition and subtraction with more ease. It helps to build a strong foundation for their math skills.

Ideas for the Number Sense Wheel Clip Cards Printable

You can also make this a self-checking activity. Just put a dot on the back of the correct parts of the clip cards. If the learner has clipped the dot then the answer is correct, if not ask them to try it again, or discuss why they chose that answer.

This packet can be used to strengthen fine motor skills, explore during morning work or used as supplemental math centers. The clip cards are skill-based, they are not thematic, so they can be used anytime during the year. The centers are best used once printed on cardstock and/or laminated. You can choose to implement these centers in an independent way or use with small-groups.

Differentiating the Activity – Number Sense Clip Cards

This activity is a super simple center to differentiate. Simply choose the numbers that your learners need to practice on and present it to them.

For instance, if a learner is very good with numbers from 1 to 10, but needs some help with their teen numbers, present them with the clip cards from 11 to 20, and they can strengthen their number sense for those numbers.

Kindergarten Clip Cards ENDLESS Bundle – Math and Literacy Centers

If you loved this printable, and would love to have more printables like this, check out this bundle of Kindergarten Clip Cards below. It currently contains 11 sets of clip cards, but is endless since I have so many ideas for clip cards. Grab it now before the price goes up as more sets are added!

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Shop the Number Sense Clip Cards

Practice number sense with your kindergarten learners for numbers 1 to 20. Click on the button below to grab your copy today!

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Happy teaching! ~

Number Sense Activities for Kindergarten – Numbers 1 to 20 Clip Cards Math Center