Get 12 different grid games for preschool and kindergarten!
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Today I’m sharing a versatile set of freebies that teach a surprising number of math concepts to kids in preschool and kindergarten.
Have you seen grid games?
I admit I’ve seen them on some popular early learning websites and wondered what the point was. Frankly, they looked boring. Could my kids really learn all that much from rolling a die and putting counters on a grid?
Actually, yes.
And they like it!
Recently I spent several weeks researching ways to make math meaningful in preschool and kindergarten. I spent a lot of time with this phenomenal book. In it, the author strongly recommends grid games as a learning tool for the number and operations math standard.
Read: What you need to know about preschool & kindergarten math standards
To play, simply print a game board and provide a die and small counters. You can choose a different sized grid depending on your child’s ability level. In the downloads below, each grid comes with 9 spaces, 10 spaces, 15 spaces, and 20 spaces.
You can keep this as a very open ended activity. What will your child or students do with the materials?
- Some might roll the die and take a corresponding number of counters to place on the grid.
- Some might roll the die, point to a dot, take a counter, and keep doing so until they have the right number of counters.
- Still others may place counters on the grid without rolling the die at all.
- Others may simply play with the manipulatives.
Whether you leave this open-ended or guide students to use the game a particular way, remember to support their learning with a lot of math talk. It’s SUPER important, especially when you’re teaching young learners.
Here are some examples of math talk.
“How many pennies did you put on the grid? How many more do you think you need to add? Let’s count and see if you’re right.”
“I asked you how many piggybanks there were, and you knew there were 9 right away. How did you know that so quickly? Can you show me how you knew that?
“This grid has 10 spaces. If you put 3 rocks on the grid, how many more rocks do you need to fill it?”
“This grid has 20 spaces! I wonder how many times you’ll roll the die before it’s full. How many times do you think you’ll have to roll it? How could we keep track?”
If you have a very young child using the grid (my daughter is 2 years 9 months), show her how to put one counter on each space and see what she does.
“Can you put each bear in a cave?” or “Can you put one bear in each home?”
While I was working with my Four, my Two enjoyed putting a penny in the slot on each piggy bank. Of course she had to work with her sippy cup at her side. 😉
When supported with math talk, kids can learn a lot with grid games!
- quantification (knowing “how many”)
- one-to-one correspondence
- addition
- subtraction
- probability
- beginning multiplication
When designing the games, I thought about all the small manipulatives that my children enjoy. Then I created a set of grid games for each one.
Grid games for preschool & kindergarten
Just click on each image to grab four different grids on a theme!
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- Coins on piggybanks
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- Rocks on dump trucks
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- Bear counters on caves
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- Glass gems on Easter baskets
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- Seashells on buckets
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- Clear gems (bubbles) on fish
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- Metal nuts on tools
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- Jewels on crowns
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- Buttons on spools of thread
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- Pom poms on hats
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- Cotton balls on snowmen
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- Dice on game boards
We love the grid games from Prekinders!
More free resources
© 2016, Anna G. All rights reserved.
Anna, I just want to thank you for all the wonderful ideas and freebies that we get from you. I have been teaching for 42 years and as it is also my hobby, it consumes most of my free time as well. I am always looking for new ideas to inspire my teachers and the little ones. I can’t imagine how busy you must be with your own children, teaching home school, being a wife and a home maker AND writing this wonderful blog. God bless you and your great job. Love in God.
Thank you so much for your encouragement, Zelna! I think it’s amazing that you’ve been teaching for 42 years and still have a passion for it – how wonderful! Like you, I have a strong passion for education and just LOVE what I get to do here on my site. I should say that I don’t homeschool past preschool, though – that frees up a lot more time. 😉
Thank you so much for all the great free resources! My students love all the fun activities. I love using new materials and yours are always exciting and make learning fun!
Thank you, Donna! That’s so wonderful to hear!
Anna, you are my hero! I am so very thankful to have discovered your resources on Pinterest. I teach an elementary class of students with severe/profound and multiple disabilities. They range from 3 years old to 5th grade, so finding suitable tasks and activities for my group is quite a challenge. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise and creations. One favorite of my students is the math grid. I printed and laminated several – the dump trucks, sock hats, snowmen, and caves. Since Christmas is fast approaching, I wanted a grid specifically for that holiday. So I made one for the kids to put star beads on Christmas trees. Instead of making several different sizes, I make a 15 grid and fold or frame it to show the number of trees I want to use. I wish I knew how to send you a pic – it turned out great!
How wonderful, Sheri! I just love to hear how you’re finding activities to help your students. Thank you SO much for taking the time to leave this comment!