About this game

Find the number just after

Find the number just after: a free Pre-K math game for ages 4-5. Each round draws 5 questions; instructions are read aloud and every answer is checked and explained.

How it plays and why it helps

Just after is a phrase children use for time long before they use it for numbers. Find the number just after, a Pre-K game, gives it a place on a strip. Each round shows five strips numbered from 1 to 6 or 7, with a counter on one box. The instruction is read aloud, and your child taps the number just after the counter. Every answer is checked and explained: the counter is on 4, and just after it comes 5.

The number just after is always one more. Knowing it without counting from 1 is what later makes plus one feel easy. The hint gives a direction to hold on to: after is the next box, to the right. That left-to-right sense is the one a number line uses too.

The likely slip is tapping the number under the counter, 4 instead of 5, since it is the one your child is looking at. The number before it is often a choice too. Ask, "Hop one box to the right. Where do you land?" Let a finger make the hop. Praise the move: "You hopped one box and read the number."

Aligned with

  • P-MATH 1 Child knows number names and the count sequence.
  • P-MATH 5 Child associates a quantity with written numerals up to 5 and begins to write numbers.
  • P-MATH 2 Child recognizes the number of objects in a small set.

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