Learn to count to 5

💡 How it plays and why it helps

Five red caps that look exactly alike are harder to count than five different toys. Learn to count to 5 uses that on purpose. Each card shows a row of identical things, caps, cars, cans, donuts or ties, from one to five of them. A number line with die dots and raised fingers sits above as a helper. The instruction is read aloud, your Pre-K child taps one of five buttons, Number 1 to Number 5, and every answer is checked. A round has five cards.

When the objects are all the same, nothing marks which ones were already counted, so the finger has to do the remembering. That is one-to-one counting in its plainest form: one touch, one word. The hint says it too.

In a row of five identical caps, the eyes slide and the count lands on 4. Slow it down: "Tap each cap with me, nice and slow." Once the count comes out the same twice, say what made it work: "You touched every cap once."