Ocean Count and Clip Cards for Preschoolers Summer Learning

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Inside: Ocean Count and Clip Cards for practicing counting skills this summer, while still enjoying the summer.

Kids love counting things.

I don't know what it is, and maybe it's just my kids . . . but as soon as they learned numbers they were happily counting everything in sight. As a mom who is a little hyper focused on ensuring my kids are “math people”, I am ALL FOR IT.

Counting Clip Cards allow preschoolers to practice counting skills and work on hand-eye coordination, as well as their little finger strength, with the clothespins.

These cards are also a great way for parents to help increase the independence of their children, while also fostering self-confidence in them.

Welcome to The last day, day 10 of my 10 Days of Summer Printables for Preschoolers! If you're interested in grabbing the other days, click the link and go back and grab them all. I can't believe all this fun is coming to and end. I had so much fun creating these printables for you, I hope you love them.

I love using these printables as a way to occupy my kids for a minute while I move laundry, let the dog out, or secretly eat chocolate alone in the pantry.

Grab a book from our list of top ocean books for preschoolers to take this counting craft to the next level!

Do you want keep your preschooler thinking about numbers this summer without spending a lot of money on new materials, but still get them learning and having fun?

You're in luck! I've got just the thing for you.

Some of the links below are affiliate links. That means I may make a commission if you click and buy. Please see my full disclosure policy for more information.

My printable ocean cards provide an activity that's great for developing counting skills and hand-eye coordination.

This activity is perfect for those hot summer days when you don't want to spend too much time outside in the heat.

Ocean Count and Clip Cards are super amazing because they give options, and your child can pick the right one from three possible answers. This helps with correcting answers.

These cards are perfect for summer because they have the MOST adorable summer art on them, which we have in all of the printables we have given out this week. They feel so summery, with seashells, sea stars, and sand castles.

Although my family doesn't live anywhere near the beach anymore, it is still wonderful to find ways to bring the beach back into our lives.

Looking for more clip cards?

Ocean Count and Clip Cards, How to Prepare:

As always, I recommend putting all of this together ahead of time to keep the unnecessary chaos out of our lives. New things–like this colorful and fun printable– are so exciting for kids, so it's hard to keep their wiggles under control.

That's normal.

So I like to get all of the laminating and cutting out of the way before I bring this out to them.

Let's keep that chaos out of our life and just prepare this ahead of time. I like to print everything the night before, laminate them, and have everything ready to go when I bring this out to my children for usage.

For these cards it will take a very small amount of preparation. You'll need to print, laminate, and cut. You will also need little pom poms or those erasers you can find at Target.

You can use so many different types of small manipulatives for this. You can use the actual clothespins for clip cards, or your child could put something down on their card, like pom poms, tiny erasers, buttons, or even use a marker to circle the correct answer.

Here is the list of everything you need.

-The free printables (OF COURSE!) grab it here:

–A laminator– I am a huge fan of laminators, I think it helps so much to keep these printables going as long as we can, saving money and time. So for that reason I like to laminate all the things.

-Scissors- These are for you, not the kids, you'll need to cut out each clip card to use it.

–Clothespins- These are for clipping, of course, but if you don't have them, use what you have! Lay pom poms, beads, or colored macaroni down on the right answer.

Need to color macaroni? Here is my tutorial

PIN for later:

Prepare Your Summer Clip Card Printable:

-gather supplies: your pages, laminator, scissors, and clothespins.

-laminate all the pages.

-cut out each of the cards

-lay out clothespins or manipulatives for your child along with the clip cards

Then boom! You're ready!

Interested in more summer fun printables? Check out my shop, where you can find SO much more than what I offered here! Thank you for supporting my family. To access the shop, click the image below!

How to Use Your Ocean Counting Printable

The idea behind ocean count and clip cards is counting objects, then distinguishing which number is the correct total.

Put simply, your child will count each collection of objects, and then place a marker or clothespin on the correct number to the right.

You can ask your child which way they would prefer too.

Another way you can use those fine motor skill is to trace the numbers with your fingers, or use eraser manipulatives to recreate the amount on the card.

I love to let my kids take the lead with printables, and tell me how they would like to interact with it. I've learned so much from letting them see the products as I am making them, and they help me shape them into something I wouldn't have thought of.

Summer Counting Card Printable – Made Easier

You can make these work younger kids, you can talk about the pictures. So you can identify what is in each image, and talk about what each beach object is.

With younger kids, they might not be able to use their fingers to open and close the clothespins, so I suggest using pom poms, or another manipulative for them.

I stay close when they are first introduced to these counting cards because I want to be there in case they feel frustrated with the clothespins. Once they understand and they can use the clothespins, or other manipulatives, I let them use these printable independently.

Name an object, and have your child show you where it is in front of you. When they name the object correctly, they can lace that card.

Adapt Clip Cards For Preschoolers – Made Harder

Once they're familiar with numbers and counting, they can arrange the cards in order from biggest number to smallest.

I love encouraging their creativity, so sometimes we take the cards, and write a story about the characters. For example, my daughter has written a story about two little squids.

My son loves drawing (I wrote about the best gifts to get kids who LOVE drawing like my son here) so for him, he likes to redraw the characters, and give them a beautiful background.

Other Ways to Learn with Clip Cards

The thing I love about these cards is how much my kids love them. We encourage a lot of questions and discussions, and the adorable art on these encourages lots of questions. Have you ever seen a turtle look like this? What do you think a family of turtles would look like? What color are the turtles you have seen?

What is the name of this?

Oh, a beach ball? What do you know about beach balls? Do you know any songs about beach balls? Maybe we can ask Alexa if she knows any fun facts about beach balls!

There are so many different ways to bring learning into your every day life with your child.

What about creating your own clip cards? Using these as a template to create your own. Take magazines, beads, buttons, or even pom poms to create your own clip cards together.

What Will Kids Learn?

Counting and one to one correspondence. Kids will understand that the last number name said tells the number of objects counted. The number of objects is the same regardless of their arrangement or the order in which they were counted.

My kids are huge fans of the cute art on these ocean count and clip cards, so it leads to lots of discussions, and what they think about the objects they see. They think these turtles are TOO green, for example.

Get the Printable Here

Here is another opportunity go grab that printable. I know it will be a favorite! Grab it here:
Just put your information in, and you'll receive an email from me immediately to download.

Be sure you check out our full collection of summer themed printables in the shop!

The thing I love about printables for preschoolers is how it helps them use their ands to interact with letters, numbers, and shapes. I love when they can cut up papers, or squish play doh between their fingers. I began this journey to create more for my preschooler so I could keep him occupied without putting a screen in front of his face. It was so tempting, and so easy, so I decided to start making things, so these printables were MORE easy, and MORE tempting. I like bright colors and fun art on them, so you will be sure to get that from all of my printables. I'm glad you're here, and I hope you love what you see, and come back for more, it would mean the world to me.

For more free printables this week, be sure to check out this post with links to all of the freebies.

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