About this game

Understand that an amount stays the same when the objects are moved

Understand that an amount stays the same when the objects are moved: 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

Push five toy cars into a tight bunch, and a child may tell you there are fewer now. Understand that an amount stays the same when the objects are moved tests that belief in a Pre-K game. A neat row of four to eight carrots, apples, fish or balls is shown, and the instruction says they were pushed close together. Your child taps the bunched picture that shows the same objects, from four. Five questions make a round, and each answer is checked and explained: we pushed the carrots together, but there are still 4.

Psychologists call this conservation of number. Moving things does not add or remove any. Young children often judge by the space a group takes. Counting corrects the eye, and the hint says so: count them.

Here the tempting picture has one object fewer, since a tight bunch looks smaller. Tap through the row, then through the bunch, saying the numbers together. Then ask, "Did any carrot run away?" Praise the recount: "You counted again instead of guessing."

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.

▲ Back to the game