Math Skills for Kindergarten Readiness & How to Support Them at Home
Aug 09, 2024
Is your child starting kindergarten soon? While research shows that early math skills are often overlooked in preschool settings, you can make a difference for your child at home! Knowing how to target kindergarten readiness skills with play-based math can set your child up for success without flashcards, worksheets, or stress. You can help them build a foundational number sense, confidence as a math learner, and a positive relationship with math that will carry through their years in school.
Read on to learn the kindergarten readiness skills that teachers look for, plus simple ways to grow them at home! Through simple games and daily rituals, you can prepare your child for the transition to kindergarten and beyond.
Kindergarten Readiness Math Skills
Counting and Cardinality
Target Skills
- Recite the verbal count list to 20
- Count and create small sets of up to 10 objects
- Start to connect numerals 0 - 10 to the sets of objects that they represent
Supportive Activities
- Count out snacks together: "Let's count out 6 crackers for each of us!"
- Sing counting songs: Five Little Ducks, Super Simple Songs
- Play counting games:
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Number Sense
Target Skills
- Subitize (recognize small sets without counting) groups of 1-5 objects, dot patterns on dice, or finger patterns
- Compare groups and identify which has more, fewer, or an equal number of objects
Supportive Activities
- Use dice games to help recognize patterns without counting
- Use cards with dot patterns to practice comparing sets
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Operations
Target Skills
- Understand part-whole relationships: that two smaller groups can be combined to make a larger quantity, or a larger group can be separated into smaller parts
- Start to understand number order and relationships in order to identify one more or one less than a target number
Supportive Activities
- Add math talk to block play to introduce the concepts of addition and subtraction "If we add two more blocks, how many do we have now?"
- Play simple board games that require "counting on" from different numbers
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Geometry
Target Skills
- Recognize shape names and features (e.g. number of sides)
- Understand spatial relationships and vocabulary (e.g. over, under, below, top, bottom, center)
Supportive Activities:
- Look for shapes on a math talk walk! "Can you spot any circles?"
- Use Magna-Tiles or paper crafts to build composite shapes and discuss their features
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Measurement and Data
Target Skills
- Compare sizes, lengths, and weights of different objects
- Sort objects by different attributes (color, shape, size)
Supportive Activities
- Talk about and compare different ingredients when cooking together: “Woah this apple is way bigger than the others!” “Can you hand me the shortest carrot?”
- Compare the heights of block towers or sort favorite toys by size, type, or color
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Bonus Skill: Growth Mindset
A growth mindset will carry your preschooler through kindergarten math and beyond!
Supportive Activities
- Incorporate math talk into daily routines to make math a natural part of your child's environment. Emphasize effort over outcome as your child builds their math skills.
- Model enthusiasm about math! If you have math anxiety, try to model a positive attitude and focus on persistence and growth. Avoid labeling yourself as "not a math person," and be open about working through your own challenges.
To prepare your child for kindergarten, you don't need to have separate "math time" or focus on memorizing specific facts! Simply incorporating meaningful math play and math talk into your daily routine will help your child build these skills and develop a positive, joyful relationship with math. As you target kindergarten readiness skills, you’ll see your preschooler building proficiency and a joyful love of math. To learn more about building meaningful early math skills through play, follow us @growintomath.