About this game

Move along the strip

Move along the strip: 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

Anyone who has played a board game with a four-year-old has seen the counter hop onto the box it already sits on. Move along the strip practices exactly that moment. A numbered strip from 1 to 6 or 7 shows a counter on box 3 or 4, and the instruction, read aloud, says how far it moves: 2 or 3. Your Pre-K child taps the box where it lands, from four numbers. The bank holds five moves, so a round always uses those five, and each answer is checked.

Moving along a strip is adding on a number line before anyone calls it that. Starting on 4 and moving 2 lands on 6, and the strip makes the step visible. The strip does the showing. The hint names the key rule: do not count the starting box; the first step goes to the next box.

Watch out for 5: it comes from saying one on the box where the counter already stands. Act it out with a coin on the screen and ask, "Where does the first hop go?" Then praise the rule kept: "You left the start box alone."

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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