Free Printable Caterpillar Number Match

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Learning to count and number recognition (subitizing) is a huge skill for preschoolers and kindergartners. There are so many fun ways to work with numbers and practice counting! Today I’d like to share a free printable counting activity that is great for preschoolers and kindergartners- my Caterpillar Number Match!

What is Caterpillar Number Match?

Caterpillar Number Match is a counting activity where children build fun, colorful caterpillars that correspond to a pattern.

They also get to work on instantly recognizing groups as a particular number, a skill knows as subitizing. It’s how we instantly recognize a “six” when we roll it on a die or a group of tally marks as “five” without counting.

This version includes the numbers one through ten. Each number is represented in six different ways:

Number

Die (dice)

Written word

Objects to count

Finger representation

Ten frame

Related Post: Learning Through Play: Alphabet Hide and Seek

How Do We Play?

We follow a semi-classical schedule in our home, so a strong math foundation is essential. There are a few different ways to incorporate Caterpillar Number Match into your homeschool. It can be used to practice counting and work on number recognition, as well.

One way to play is to create caterpillars that have body parts all representing the same number. For example, your child could create a “five” caterpillar. He or she would sort out all of the body parts that represent the number five and use them to build a caterpillar.

Related Post: Sticker Number Counting Activity for Numbers 10-21

Another way to play Caterpillar Number Match is to create counting caterpillars. For this activity, your child could create a caterpillar that counts from one to ten. You can either sort out one type of body part and have your child put them in order (choose all the ten frame body parts and put them in order) or let your child mix and match number representations, but still put them in numerical order. So, an example of this could be the number ten, the ten frame for two, the fingers for three, etc.

Other ideas for using Caterpillar Number match in your homeschool are creating odd or even caterpillars, creating caterpillars by color, and counting backwards. Have fun with it!

How Do I Prep Caterpillar Number Match?

I find that I am the most successful with activities that are low-prep. With three kiddos at home, I don’t often find myself with tons of time to create or prep super in-depth activities. I’m sure that will change as the girls get older, but that’s where we are now, so I created Caterpillar Number Match to be super low-prep. I actually got my first grader to help get this homeschool activity ready!

All you have to do is:

First, print the pages out. (My daughter loves to get things from the printer for me, so that saved me a few steps.)

Second, cut out the heads and body parts. (My first grader and my 4 year old are pretty good with scissors, so they helped with this, too.

What’s Included: eight fun, bright caterpillar heads and the numbers one through ten represented as : number, dice, fingers, objects, ten frame, and the word.

Get Started

To get your free printable copy of Caterpillar Number Match, simply sign up below! You’ll get access to the caterpillar as well as all of my other free printables and activities!

You can get your Caterpillar Number Match for free right here!

Playing games together as a family is another fun way to practice counting with your preschooler. We love playing games in our house and I’ve put together a list of our favorites! Some of them I had never heard of, but they are awesome and fun for adults, too!

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