• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

Nurture and Thrive

Raising Children With Big Hearts and Strong Minds

  • Home
  • Our Story
  • 馃Favorite Products
  • Explore…
    • Most Popular
    • Babyhood
    • Toddlers
    • Regulation Skills for Kids
    • Daily Routines and Family Life
    • Books and Games
    • Your Child’s Inner World
    • Mindful Parenting
    • Whole Child Development
    • Play
    • Holiday Gifts and Traditions
  • Shop
  • Home
  • Our Story
  • 馃Favorite Products
  • Explore…
    • Most Popular
    • Babyhood
    • Toddlers
    • Regulation Skills for Kids
    • Daily Routines and Family Life
    • Books and Games
    • Your Child’s Inner World
    • Mindful Parenting
    • Whole Child Development
    • Play
    • Holiday Gifts and Traditions
  • Shop
  • About
You are here: Home / Books and Games / Fun Preschool Math and Matching Game

Fun Preschool Math and Matching Game

173shares
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

This is a fun game we play in our house that has the benefit of hands-on fun with basic math principles, cognitive skills, and self-regulation.

Color Dice Game - Feature

We saw a similar game for children in Sweden, but I’ve searched for one here and can’t find it. If you live in Sweden, you can buy this version: Barn Yatzy. Below is my version of this fun game! It is a basic dice game in which kids identify patterns and count colors. There are also points which are tallied. Older children can help with the points and younger children observe the process of accumulating and adding points together.

For preschoolers (who are in Piaget’s Preoperational stage of development) learning should be hands-on and gamelike. Playing games with preschoolers has the added bonus of practicing self-regulation skills. Waiting for their turn, not rolling the dice too hard, following the rules of the game — these are all natural situations in which children must regulate one behavior in order to meet a higher goal (i.e. I want to throw the dice across the room but I won’t because I want to play the game more). For other great games see my post on My Favorite Games for Fostering Self-Regulation.

To learn numeracy children need to manipulate objects. They move from this concrete exploration to thinking more abstractly over time. I love this game because it incorporates both concrete and abstract mathematical ideas. Also, it asks children to identify patterns, a key building block for math and science education.

The other thing I love about this game is you can play it in about 15 minutes, so it can hold a preschooler’s attention. Although, it’s also okay not to play the full ten rounds. We started playing this game with my son when he was about 3.5 years old. It took a few times introducing it to get him into it, but once he got it he loved it!

Here are the rules of the game.

Object:

2-6 players

Players take turns rolling 5 colored dice. The goal is to get as many matches as possible. If all 5 dice are the same color that is the highest score (see the printable for other combinations and point values).

color dice game for kids, a fun hands-on math game!For a printable version click this link Color Dice Game Scoring Sheet.

Process:

On their turn, a player can roll the dice three times. The first roll includes all 5 dice. If there are two dice that match the player can put those to the side and roll the remaining three dice.  A player can reroll any number of dice.

Points are tallied for each round. There are ten rounds, but you could choose to do five rounds if you wanted a shorter game.

Whoever has the most points wins!

Materials:

I’ve created two free printables! One with the possible patterns and assigned points and a score tally sheet. I laminated ours and we use a dry erase marker for the tally sheet, so you only need to print one. If you don’t have a set in another game you will also need to purchase a set of colored dice. Here is the set we have (affiliate link): Color Dot, 6-Sided Novelty Dice _ Bundle of 12 Identical Dice.For a printable version click on this link

color dice game for kids, a fun hands-on math game!

For a printable version click on this link Color Dice Game Tally Sheet.

On the color dice printable I don’t include all possible patterns with all possible colors. This is because I want to encourage flexible thinking. Cognitive flexibility (great video in that link) is the ability to switch from one set of rules to another. This is an executive function skill that develops across the preschool period. For example, I want my son to be able to understand that it isn’t two yellows and two reds that equal 2 points, but that it is any pair of matching colors. That requires a little bit of abstract thinking and cognitive flexibility and it is beyond simple concrete manipulation.

Happy playing!

perfect size for pinning

A fun game that has the benefit of hands on fun with basic math principles, great for preschoolers and older children too!

173shares
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

Category: Books and GamesTag: brain, cognitive, math, preschoolers

Hi! As a mom and a child psychologist who spent over 15 years studying children's emotional development, I am excited to share science-backed information with you so that you can do your best parenting.

I believe that good parenting is a combination of instincts and knowledge. Sometimes that knowledge helps you trust your instincts and sometimes all you need is a little change of perspective. Here, at nurture and thrive, you'll find the tools you need to strengthen your children's hearts and minds. Read Our Story...

Previous Post: «Help your child develop focused attention through play Increase Your Child’s Focused-Attention With Play
Next Post: Four Mealtime Strategies for Kids Who Won’t Sit Still! get kids to sit through dinner»

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Otilia

    September 6, 2015 at 2:54 pm

    Thank you so much for linking the #pinitparty

  2. Otilia

    September 6, 2015 at 2:54 pm

    Great activity! Thank you so much for linking the #pinitparty

Primary Sidebar

Looking for something?

All about babies

Babyhood

Babyhood

Books and Games

Books and Games
daily routines and family time

Daily Routines and Family Life

Daily Routines and Family Life
mindful parenting

Mindful Parenting

Mindful Parenting
All about parenting toddlers

Toddlers

Toddlers
emotions and behavior

Your Child's Inner World

Your Child's Inner World
  • About

Copyright © 2021 Ashley Soderlund 路 Nurture and Thrive 路 All Rights Reserved 路 Disclosures 路 Privacy and Advertising Policy 路

173shares