Parents and teachers can help make everyday moments, learning opportunities. LIDS are readily available, are free, and make a great springboard for many academic preschool mathematics lessons.
Many of these learning activities can take place as you come home from school each day.
Hands-On Math Activities with Lids
Are you a lid collector???
I AM!!! Because they are soooo awesome for learning and playing with. Here is a list of 10 of our favorite learning activities to do at home with lids. For all of these preschool learning activities, you will need a set of washed lids from different containers.
I painted some of mine red, so that there were only three color choices.
1. Re-Using. Reduce, reuse, and recycle are the 3 R’s for making less waste and taking care of the environment. Take a minute to talk with your child about how awesome this activity is because it is re-using something that would normally go to the recycle bin.
2. Counting. Lids are great for counting. See how many lids there are all together.
3. Sorting by size. Lids come in several different sizes: small, medium and large. See if your child can sort them into 3 groups by size.
4. Ordering by size. After your child has sorted the lids by size, see if they can put them in order from least to greatest or greatest to least. I like to use my pointer finger and middle finger and pretend to have my hands walk up or down the ordered lids. It gives a little bit of FUN and PLAY into sorting!
5. Building with Lids. Stacking lids is a little bit of ordering and a little bit of preschool engineering (and some great fine motor strengthening too!) See how high you can stack your lids before they tumble over!
6. Adding! In this easy to make apple activity, my son helped me paint a tree. I traced around it with a black marker and put a plus sign in the middle. He set some lids on the left and some lids on the right. Then I asked him to add the lids up. “How many are there all together?”
7. Play Tic-Tac-Toe with Lids.Add a few straws or sticks and you have a game board. These thinking games take patience and planning. Tic-tac-toe is a little bit of strategy and a little bit luck!
8. Learn Letters with Lids. Arrange the lids to form upper and lower case letters. Want free printables for the activity? Click here to download a set of alphabet printables.
9. Patterning. AB patterns are the first and easiest pattern to make and learn. AB represents the pattern unit that is repeated over and over again. A is one color or obejct and B is the other. After your child has mastered the AB pattern, challenge them to create other patterns using colors and sizes in the pattern unit. The pattern pictured is green circle, red circle, little red circle, or ABC.
10. Make up a game! That’s right. Have your child use lids to make up their own learning game. Not only will they have ownership over their learning, but they will also be able to use their creativity and problem solving skills!
Homeschooling Your Preschooler?
These lid activities are G-R-E-A-T hands-on, play based learning activities for our young learners. Not only that, but they are FREE. Yes, preschooling at home doesn’t need to cost a lot of money.
How fun! This is a wonderful idea to get the little ones engaged without them even knowing they're learning. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
These are great ideas! I knew I was saving lids for a reason. Pinning