Number of the Day Activities for Kindergarten

Are you looking for a simple way to add more number sense practice into your daily routine?  Number of the day is a great option!  In this post, I’m going to share my favorite number of the day activities for kindergarten.  Your students will love these engaging activities that help them improve number sense and develop foundational math skills.

What is Number of the Day?

A number of the day routine is a simple way to add important number sense concepts into your classroom.  At first glance, it might seem easiest to simply align the number of the day with the day of the school year. (For example, on the fifth day of school the number of the day is five.)  However, this means that students are moving on to teen numbers within the first few weeks of school.  As kindergarten teachers, we know that students need a bit more exposure to single-digit numbers before moving on to teen numbers and beyond.

This is why I use a slightly different approach to a number of the day routine.  I like to start by using numbers between one and ten in no particular order, which we repeat for a few weeks until mastery.  Then we move on to teen numbers to 20.  Eventually, in the second half of the year, we use numbers to 100 for the number of the day.  Working our way up like this helps to lay the foundation students need to see patterns and understand numbers.

Number of the Day Activities

Regardless of how you decide to approach your number of the day routine, there are several activities that I’ve found to be highly effective in helping students develop number sense.  Keep reading for some of my favorites!

Number Formation 

Number writing practice is one reason why it’s important for students to repeat the first nine numbers during the number of the day routine.  This repetition gives them multiple opportunities to practice proper number formation.  Once they can write 0 to 9, they can write any number!

Write the Number Word

Being able to identify number words will help students in both math and literacy activities.  By reading and writing number words, students can practice fine motor skills during number of the day activities!

Ten Frames

For numbers to 20, it’s helpful for students to visualize the number of the day on a ten frame.  Since ten frames are an important tool that we use for elementary math instruction, students benefit from practicing with ten frames every day!

Dominoes

This is one of my favorite number of the day activities because it helps students see that there is more than one way to make a number. For the number 5, they could have two dots on one side and three dots on the other or they could have four and one. Understanding number combinations is a foundational skill that will help students as they move toward learning math fact strategies.

Number Chart

Identifying a number within the context of a chart will help students visualize quantity and grow more familiar with numerical order.  For the beginning of the year, I like to use a number chart to 20.  For numbers greater than 20, we use a hundreds chart.

More and Less

Another important number of the day concept is to identify the numbers that are one more and one less.  After counting and identifying these numbers, they can be written before and after the number to practice sequencing. Later in the year, the more and less activity also includes ten more and ten less.  These numbers are recorded above and below the number of the day to help students see the relationship between these numbers.  To solidify this concept, you can even return to the actual number chart and use a different symbol or color to identify more and less.  

Tally Marks

I love to give students as many exposures as possible to math strategies that will help them with future math tasks.  Being able to use tally marks is a skill that will help students throughout elementary school and beyond!  This is why it's helpful to show the number of the day with tally marks.

Place Value

Once students are practicing larger numbers later in the year, it’s important to bring place value discussion into the daily routine.  Students can represent the number of the day with tens and ones, an essential skill for future math concepts!

Number of the Day Chart and Worksheets

Reading a list of all of these activities might make it seem like a number of the day routine will take a lot of time each school day. In reality, it doesn’t take much time at all!  It can be as simple as filling out a number of the day chart or worksheet.  

I like to work together as a class to complete a number of the day anchor chart. Once the chart is filled out, I put it on display so that we can reference it throughout the day. I also provide students with a number of the day worksheet that uses the same activities as the anchor chart, so they can practice these number sense concepts as we discuss them together. Since this becomes a classroom routine, students are able to easily follow along with minimal prompting.

Number of the Day Template

I hope you’ve found inspiration in these number of the day activity ideas.  If you would like to download a ready-made number of the day template, I have created a resource that has everything you need to get started!

Included in this download are two anchor chart options: One for numbers 1 to 20 and one for numbers 21 to 100.  It also comes with corresponding worksheet templates for students to complete and workbook cover options if you’d like to create a number of the day book for each student. You can find this resource in the Teaching Exceptional Kinders shop or on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Save These Number of the Day Activities

Are you short on time for downloading this number of the day template resource?  Be sure to save this post to your favorite kindergarten math board on Pinterest.  You’ll be able to quickly find this resource whenever you’re ready to download and print.