Marshmallow Snowballs Winter Counting Activities
As the cold settles in, it’s the perfect time to bring the magic of the season into the classroom with winter counting activities. Among the best winter preschool activities, this marshmallow-snowball counting game is a hands-on way to build fine motor skills, practice one-to-one correspondence, and strengthen number sense. Plus, the fun, sensory-filled experience makes it a classroom favorite for little learners.
Winter is a season filled with opportunities to incorporate fun and educational activities into your preschool lesson plans. This marshmallow-snowball counting activity is a creative way to bring the magic of snow indoors while helping children practice early math skills.
The marshmallows in this activity aren’t just for snacking—they are the “snowballs” in a fun and educational fine motor skill activity designed for wintry days.
Preschoolers really work on their fine motor skills as they turn a basic transfer activity into a winter counting game.
This simple yet effective activity offers a multitude of educational benefits. From strengthening fine motor and number sense skills to working hand-eye coordination and cognitive development, this easy winter counting activity packs a lot in with almost no prep-work at all!
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How Do You Teach Counting in a Fun Way?
Teaching counting in a fun way often involves integrating play with educational concepts to create an immersive learning experience for children. Try some of these ideas:
- Manipulatives
- Tangible objects that children can touch, move, and count.
- Manipulatives could be anything from colorful building blocks and beads to themed items like leaves in the fall or seashells in the summer.
- Themed manipulatives can connect the counting activity to the child’s world and interests.
- Themed Counting Activities
- Themed activities are particularly engaging because they offer a narrative or context that turns a math lesson into a play session.
- Themes are high-interest for children, which means learning activities will be even more enticing.
- Counting Books
- Counting books make learning math fun by combining reading with numbers.
- When kids read counting books, they get to explore different stories that keep counting interesting.
- Repeating patterns in the stories also help preschoolers remember the order of numbers.
Check out this post featuring all our favorite math books for kids.
Ultimately, the goal is to encourage active participation, allowing children to discover patterns and relationships between numbers.
- HELP young children learn all about themselves and their families with figures representing people…
- INTRODUCE early math through hands-on learning with this set family of counters
- Made of a durable yet soft plastic with a pleasing, almost rubbery feel kids love to touch.
- PRACTICE COUNTING, SORTING & MORE: Develop early math skills, counting, sorting, and color…
- HANDS-ON TACTICAL LEARNING: These teddy bear counters are great for hands-on tactical learners.
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- Kids learn to count objects and compare numbers with colorful manipulatives
- Reinforce counting, sorting, number relationships and patterning
- Set of 72 counters come in 6 different shapes and colors
Counting Activities for Winter
You only need a few materials for all these counting activities.
I’ll feature one activity in this post and then under that activity I’ll share five ways to modify the counting activities so you can find just the right winter counting activities to fit the learning needs of all your preschoolers.
Materials
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- KIDS TWEEZERS: Set includes 12 tweezers in 6 colors, activity guide, and plastic storage container…
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- FINE MOTOR TOOL: Perfect for fine motor and occupational therapy
- THE TOY FOR QUIET PLAY: These colorful foam dices are the perfect cubes for your children. Whether…
- GREAT FUN FAMILY GAMES: Playing dice games are always fun especially when we play them with family….
- INTRODUCTION TO MATH: Dice games teach numbers and counting to little kids. It also makes them…
- Food safe and BPA free; for use in restaurants, food service, catering, or home
- Break, crack, and stain-resistant melamine construction offers durability that lasts
- Heat-resistant up to 212° Fahrenheit; dishwasher safe on upper rack
The Set-Up
Place a handful (a cup or so…handfuls are unsanitary) of marshmallows in small bowl. Set it on a tray with a die and a set of mini-tongs or tweezers. Invite your preschooler to join you in playing some winter counting games.
If your preschool does not allow food items for activities, you can easily replace the mini-marshmallows with white pom-poms or even cotton balls.
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Snowball Counting Activity
The counting activity is pretty straight-forward.
Invite your preschooler to roll the die and count the quantity. If your preschooler doesn’t need to count, even better! That automatic recognition is called subsidizing and it means your preschooler is a step ahead.
If you have younger preschoolers, use a dice that has the numbers 1-3, instead of a regular dice.
Alternatively, you can choose to use a dice with numbers all instead of pips. I like to pick up these blank foam dice to make my own.
Once the number for counting has been identified, have your preschooler transfer the corresponding number of marshmallow snowballs from one small bowl and into another. (These little melamine bowls are my favorite because they are durable and don’t scratch or break).
The activity ends when all the marshmallow snowballs have been transferred form one small bowl into another.
Depending on your preschooler’s skill level, they may prefer mini tongs over tweezers, or they might rather use their hands.
The main idea is to just get in a lot of counting fun in along with whatever kind of fine motor work your preschooler is ready for.
Try out our Winter Small Pack.
Snowball Counting Activities for Preschoolers
Good lesson planning always includes ideas for a few modifications if you have a range of skills in your preschool classroom. Here are some more winter counting ideas.
- Use a set of number cards, and practice number identification while counting.
- If your preschooler is a little younger and the tongs are too difficult, allow him to use his hands to transfer the marshmallows. This is still fine motor work as it encourages the use of the pincer grasp.
- For older preschoolers, have the child roll two dice and add the two numbers together.
- Or, before adding the dice in step three, have the preschooler line up the marshmallows next to each other and compare the quantities first.
- Go big and use ping pong balls for snowballs. This approach is good for younger toddlers. They might not be ready for the counting piece, but transferring ping pong balls from one bucket to another is good fine motor work.
Winter Counting Activities
A winter preschool theme offers so many creative ways to teach counting to preschoolers. Here are some more ideas.
- Snowman Counting Cards
- Winter Counting Worksheets
- Winter Printable Activities
- Ice and Snow Lesson Plans
- Winter Sensory Bin with Number Cards
- Snowflake Numbers for Muffin Tin Counting
- Mitten Counting Cards
Loving marshmallows in your winter theme? Try this marshmallow playdough recipe!
MARSHMALLOW SNOWBALLS WINTER COUNTING ACTIVITIES
This winter counting activity provides fine motor skills practice while also improving one-to-one correspondence skills, using something that preschoolers love- marshmallows!
This simple counting activity offers many educational benefits. From strengthening fine motor and number sense skills to working hand-eye coordination, this easy winter counting activity packs in a lot of skills with almost no prep-work at all!
The best part? Your preschoolers will be too busy eating...errr...transferring marshmallows to realize they are "working". They will certainly delight in using marshmallows as snowballs in this perfect winter math activity!
Materials
- Mini marshmallows
- Dice
- Tweezers or mini-tongs
- Small bowls (two per child)
- Number cards (optional)
Instructions
The Set-up:
Place a handful of marshmallows in a small bowl. Set it on a tray with a die and a set of mini-tongs or tweezers and an empty bowl (to transfer into).
- Invite your preschooler to roll the die and count the quantity.
- If your preschooler doesn’t need to count, great! That means, they are doing well with subitizing, an important preschool skill to master.
- Once the number for counting has been identified, have your preschooler transfer the corresponding number of marshmallow snowballs from one small bowl into the other.
- The activity is complete when your preschooler has transferred all the marshmallows from one bowl to the other. That's it! Easey-peasey marshmallow counting fun!
Possible modifications of this counting activity include:
- Use a set of number cards, and practice number identification while counting.
- If the tongs are too difficult for your younger preschoolers, allow them to use their hands to transfer the marshmallows. They are still doing fine motor work as it encourages the use of the pincer grasp.
- For older preschoolers, have the child roll two dice and add the two numbers together.
- Alternatively, before adding the dice in step three, have the preschooler line up the marshmallows next to each other and compare the quantities first.
- For younger toddlers, you can use ping pong balls for snowballs. They may not be ready for the counting piece, but transferring ping pong balls from one bucket to another is good fine motor work.
Notes
If your preschool does not allow food activities, consider using cotton balls or white pom poms instead of the marshmallows.
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I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
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