Game on! Ready to turn your preschool math centers into a mini sports arena? These hands-on, movement-packed sports math activities for preschoolers are perfect for your little athletes to practice counting, measuring, and patterning while having a blast! From bowling over numbers to lacing up baseballs, get ready to bring the excitement of the game into your classroom.
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Sports Lesson Plans
Bowling Bash Numbers Game
Sports Math Centers
I went from the tennis-smacking, volleyball-spiking girl in high school to the young woman who took bowling as a P.E. credit in college. Yup, you heard that right.
But it was bowling that made that a summer I’ll never forget.
We showed up daily, practiced, and then commenced with our bowling competition. We were the IncrediBowls (yes, I loved puns in college, too), and there was laughter, joy, and the competition I loved from high school sports.
So, naturally, I wanted this bowling activity to instill similar feelings to that summer. As your preschoolers stack the pins (cups with numerals, ten frames, counting fingers, or dice) and knock them down, there will be so much happy laughter.
Just like my summer of bowling, it will be a math center that they’ll never forget.
Materials:
- Bowling Bash Numbers Game
- plastic cups
- small ball
Lacrosse Patterns
Sports Math Activities for Preschoolers
Egg cartons are a preschool teacher’s best friend. They’re useful for more than just crafts, as you can see with these Lacrosse Pattern cards.
Using a spoon as your lacrosse stick, scoop pompoms into the wells of an egg carton to show the pattern on the card. There are even cards with missing colors for you to challenge your students to complete these colorful patterns.
Materials:
- Lacrosse Pattern Cards
- egg cartons cut in half lengthwise
- pompoms
Hockey Shot
Measurement Activity
Can you imagine being hit smack in the forehead with a hockey puck flying off the ice at 85 miles an hour?
Well, true story, this happened to my best friend. I swear, this girl falls or drops something wherever we go. But this time, it was a hockey puck to the face.
Luckily for us, the hockey puck we will be using in this math activity is a bottle cap, and I doubt your preschoolers can flick it 85 miles an hour.
First, set up a narrow rink. We used magnetic tiles, but pool noodles, blocks, or cardboard will work.
Then, add your hockey puck ruler, get set, and flick that puck down the rink. Count how far it shot and record the distance on the graph.
And if that isn’t enough counting and measuring, add the hockey puck measurement cards to your math centers for a low-prep way to practice in your sports math centers.
Materials:
- Hockey Shot Measurement Activity
- magnetic tiles
- OR pool noodles, blocks, cardboard, etc.
- bottle caps
- dot markers
Baseball Counting & Addition
Sports Math Activity
Did you know a regulation baseball has 108 stitches of waxed red thread?
Do you also know what is waxy, red, and perfect for counting stitches in your sports math centers? Wiki Stix!
In this baseball math activity, preschoolers press red Wiki Stix as baseball stitches onto each side of the counting card, matching the numbers shown. Then, they’ll count the total number of stitches on their baseball—don’t worry, it’s way fewer than 108!
Materials:
Putt Putt Math
Building & Counting Activity
“I not keep doing this!” shouted my three-year-old while trying to shoot her golf ball in a hole atop a hill.
I get it, girl. I do. Because while I love putt putt golf, when my ball seems to be jumping out of the hole, I almost lose my mind.
But there will be no loss of minds with this final sports math activity: Putt Putt Math.
First, your preschoolers will notice there are no hills on this golf course. Second, they get to build it themselves!
Use snap cubes to build the walls, blue gems as water hazards, rocks, and a small cup as your hole.
Then, putt your pompom down the green into the hole, counting your strokes along the way. Finally, record your score by tracing the number on the golf score sheet.
Materials:
- Putt Putt Math Activity
- rocks
- small cups
- blue gems
- popsicle sticks (to reinforce golf club)
- snap cubes
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MORE Sports Activities for Preschoolers
So whether your little athletes are lacing up for baseball counting or scoring big in hockey measurement, these sports math activities are sure to bring the fun and the learning. Ready to take the field (or course, or rink..well, you get it!)? Game on!
