Use kinetic sand and math manipulatives for this simple sensory math activity.
So what do you do when you have a three year old who enjoys playing with kinetic sand and a 5 year old obsessed with math?
Well, you combine the two into a kinetic sand sensory math activity, obviously.
This simple activity was a great way to work on fine motor skills and math concepts. It encouraged the boys to count in a fun new way.
What You'll Need for this Sensory Math Activity
You only need a couple of materials to quickly set up this sensory math activity. You'll need:
- Mini plastic numbers similar to these
- Base tens blocks - We used our DIY wooden base ten blocks.
The Kids Will Love this Simple Sensory Math Activity that Uses Kinetic Sand
Stamping the base ten blocks into the kinetic sand ends up leaving an impression in the sand to count.
So the boys would stamp some tens and ones, count it up, and then stamp the corresponding numbers into the sand. For example, you can see two tens and four ones, which equals 24, in the photo below.
Or, in this case, five tens and one one, which equals 51.
Once the blocks and numbers were removed, you could count them again in the kinetic sand! For added learning, the boys traced the number impressions with their fingers (a good prewriting exercise!).
The boys also enjoyed just stamping different number combinations in the sand, which is a great for working on fine motor skills.
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