Engaging Counting Bear Activities for Preschool, Pre-K, and Kinder

Are you looking for play-based math activities for your preschool or kindergarten-age child? You are in the right place! I am sharing five fun counting bear activities for your homeschool math learning!

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I have introduced counting to my child in the toddler stage and early math to my children by using fun manipulatives like counting bears.

Counting bears are our favorite for math learning because we have used them for counting, introducing patterns, color sorting, addition, and subtraction. They are an investment because you will use them throughout the early homeschooling math years.

5 ways I have used counting bears for a Math Lesson for my children ages 3 – 5 years old:

Counting Practice
Pattern Practice
Color Sorting Activty
Introduce Addition and Subtraction
DIY Graphing Activity

This blog post is all about Counting Bear Activities for Preschool, Pre-K, and Kinder.

Math Activities Using Counting Bears

1. Counting

If you have a toddler, introduce counting 1-5 and slowly work your way up to the number 10 or 20.

You can grab a handful of bears and say, “Let’s see how many bears I have in my hand”, and start counting.

A second way to introduce counting is by selecting the same color of bears. Then, say to your toddler, “Let’s count how many red bears we have.”

If your child already knows how to count, a great activity will be building the number using the counting bears. This can look like saying, “Can you grab 8 bears?”

Create a challenging activity by asking, “Can you build the number 5 using only yellow bears?”

It is a fun and engaging way to foster that love for math for your child without making it daunting or hard on them.

2. Pattern Activity

Using counting bears is a great way to introduce patterns because they already come in different colors. You can start by building a pattern using 4 bears. For example, “yellow, red, yellow, red”. Then, ask your child, “Do you think the next bear should be yellow or red?”

Once they have mastered the two-color pattern, you can create a more challenging pattern that has three colors. If you feel like your child is ready to be challenged again, then you can add four colors.

Lastly, if your child has understood patterns, you can ask them to create a pattern. Provide them with either 2 or 3 colors of bears and have them build one.

3. Color Sorting

Looking for a fun way to help your toddler learn their colors? Counting bear manipulatives makes it easy to teach your child their colors.

A low-prep activity you can do is grab a construction paper sheet for each color of the bear. Place the construction paper on the floor and hand your toddler one at a time so they can place it on the correct colored paper.

Another simple activity is to give your child a bear of each color and then call out a color and have them raise it in the air. For example, “Can you show me which bear is color blue?” and keep going until you have gone through all of them.

Lastly, play an iSpy game. “iSpy a purple bear, Can you find it?” Keep it simple and fun!

4. Addition and Subtraction

Is your child a visual person when it comes to math? An easy way I started to introduce addition and subtraction to my child was by writing the math problem 2 + 1. Then, have my child place counting bears either above or under the math problem. It helped her visualize that the plus sign means all the bears together.

Then, for subtraction, I did the same 3 – 1 and explained that the minus sign is when you remove and take away. I removed the number of bears and asked her to count the final amount that was left.

As I mentioned before, using counting bears for homeschooling is an investment. Not only can you teach your child how to count with them but also teach them how to add and subtract in an engaging “non-boring” way.

5. Graphing Activities

This goes back to counting. Introduce your child to graphing by using counting bears. Form a rectangle with different colored bears and have your child fill in the boxes. Grab these black and white FREE Printables that you can use with your child.