Winter Math Activities for Preschoolers with Number Formation Cards

‘Tis the season of ice and snow, and preschoolers are sure to enjoy these winter math activities featuring playful “icicles” and “snowballs.” These engaging preschool math activities encourage children to count and form numbers properly right from the start.

I’ll share fun ways to use these printable number formation cards, but they (and so many more activities) are also included in my Daily Lessons in Preschool Mathematics Curriculum.

This winter math activity is a staple in my classroom, capturing the attention of preschoolers year after year.

Using beads and pipe cleaners, children sort beads by color and then slide the beads onto pipe cleaners to create snowy icicles. But that’s not all…we pack in a lot more math than just sorting. This post includes free number formation cards, too, so let’s check out all the ways we use them in our winter counting activities!

Learning Goals

• Build fine motor skills through play
• Practice counting with one-to-one correspondence
• Strengthen number recognition
• Support early number formation

Winter Math Activities with Number Formation Cards

With a single number formation math printable and a few materials, I’ll show you five winter math activities for preschoolers! They’re perfect for your winter preschool theme.

What’s Included

• Numbers 0–9 with tracing arrows to help learners form numbers correctly.
• Updated cards featuring ten frames to build even more number sense.

Additional Materials

• Iridescent pipe cleaners
• White pony beads
• Light blue pony beads
• Number formation cards

These number formation cards are a key printable you can use in various math centers and activities — perfect for number writing practice and counting.

Preschool Winter Math Activities

With a variety of ways to use the number formation cards and ten frame sets, these are just a few ideas that we loved using in the classroom!

If your preschooler thinks that math is play, then I’d say we are winning at this learning thing!

Winter Fine Motor and Sorting

So, I invited my boys to sort out all the winter colored pony beads but you can come up with your own sorting rules. As you can see, we were not limited to white and light blue, but there were a few grays and off-whites in there, too, which made it more fun and a little more challenging! It’s winter!

Sorting out the pony beads required a lot of skill work as they delicately picked out the winter colored pony beads.

And sorting is one of the first math skills related to algebra! In fact, I spend several weeks working on sorting skills with my preschoolers.

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If you’re ready to grab your free number formation cards right now, you can grab them below. Then keep reading for more activities using thee cards!

Immediately after this, you may find it helpful to organize math skills week by week using the Preschool Math Lesson Plan Bundle (linked here as an optional planning support). Free hands-on activities like the ones in this post work beautifully on their own, too.

Counting and Threaded Beading

After sorting the beads, I gave my boys time to freely add them to the pipe cleaners. That’s when the beads became snowballs and the pipe cleaners turned into icicles. This step is important when replacing traditional winter worksheets with play-based activities. Letting children explore the materials first helps the rest of the lesson go more smoothly (with the reminder not to bend the pipe cleaners).

The boys “poked” the snowballs with icicles as they threaded the beads onto the pipe cleaners, building fine motor skills with a fun winter theme. When the icicles were full, we counted together as each snowball was removed and placed back in the bowl. The boys counted easily to about 15 before losing track, and I modeled counting the rest for them.

Number Tracing

After the initial activity, I introduced number formation cards.

Number formation is a big focus in kindergarten, and these cards are a great addition to kindergarten math activities. The updated cards also include ten frames, making them useful for a variety of number sense activities.

The boys drew a card at random, traced the number with their finger, and then counted out the corresponding number or snowballs onto their icicle.

Alternatively, you can also place these number formation cards in a dry erase pocket and use dry erase markers, too. Sometimes I offer them that way just to make them seem new again.

Teacher note:
If you prefer having winter math and literacy activities already planned and themed together, the Winter Literacy and Math Activities Bundle is a helpful optional resource—especially during busy months. Free activities work just fine if you’re planning day by day.

Number Formation Ten Frame Cards

Of course, these cards can be drawn at random and students can count out the corresponding number of snowballs to thread onto the icicle.

Since the updated free winter counting cards have ten frames, the children can practice one to one correspondence twice by first placing the beads onto the ten frame and then threading them onto the pipe cleaner.

Number Matching

Later in the week, we followed the opposite of the above activity and the boys added a few snowballs before finding the corresponding number card from a pile. Once selected, they traced the number with their finger and then identified the number, followed by one more time counting as they removed the beads from the pipe cleaner.

If your preschoolers or kindergarten students struggle with the matching activity, have them remove the beads from the pipe cleaner to place on the ten frames on the card to self-check if they match or not.

Winter Addition Activities

Since we were working with two basic colors—blue and white—addition practice naturally emerged.

One of my boys drew a number formation card, and both identified the number and traced it with their finger. They then added the corresponding number of beads in one color, such as white. After drawing a second card and repeating the process, we created a simple number sentence, like 3 + 2 = 5.

The two different colors of beads represented part-part-whole adding. To help my little boys understand this better, I use language like, “You have three white snowballs, and then you added two blue snowballs. So now you have five snowballs on your icicle!”

Winter Math Activities for Preschoolers

Infusing your math time with mathematical seasonal math activities is a great way to practice new skills with a twist!

• Patterning Activities for Winter
• Penguin Winter Graphing
• Winter Counting Activities
• Sensory Bin for Winter
• Counting Snowballs Winter Activity
• Snowman Shape Puzzles

Winter Math Worksheets for Kindergarten

Looking for some winter math worksheets for your preschool and kindergarteners? The list below has some math ideas that are really special!

• Snow Globe Roll and Cover
• Snowman Count and Cover
• Mitten Math Activity
• Winter 1-10 Picture Puzzles

Grab Your Number Formation Cards

You can grab them right here! I’ve used them for a ton of activities, so stay tuned for more! Just click the image below.

If you’d like to see how these skills fit into a full scope and sequence, you can explore the resource below. Planning week by week with free hands-on activities is always a solid option, too.

More Winter Themed Lesson Plans

Looking for winter themed lesson plans for your preschool? Here are some free winter preschool ideas to get you started.

• Winter Clothes Preschool Lesson Plans
• Snow and Ice Preschool Lesson Plans

Winter Preschool Toys

Spice up your preschool toys with these fun winter themed toys that build fine motor skills, art, and even learning about animals that love the winter time weather! Grab a few and add them to your winter time themes for even more engaging fun in the classroom.

Winter Books for Preschool

We love those winter books for preschool! With fun and adorable storylines, these preschool winter stories bring the chilly season to life!

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