The great thing about making your own number strip puzzles is that it’s not only easy, but you can personalize the image to the child. Whatever you think would motivate your kid…Disney princesses, Pokémon, their favorite animal, etc…it’s simple to turn it into a number strip puzzle. You could even use pictures of your child.

Really, the concept is simple. By downloading the templates below, you can use any photo-editing software to overlay one of these number puzzle frames on the image of your choice. Below you’ll find a step-by-step tutorial for using the online photo editor, PicMonkey (affiliate link — note, you can use the free version for this tutorial, but paying for a membership will give you cool fonts and other features). There are templates to help your child learn to count to ten, count to 20, count to 30, count by tens, count by fives, and learn their even and odd numbers up to 20.

Number Frame Templates

• Number Puzzle Frame: 1 to 10
• Number Puzzle Frame: 11 to 20
• Number Puzzle Frame: 31 to 30
• Number Puzzle Frame: Count by Tens
• Number Puzzle Frame: Count by Fives
• Number Puzzle Frame: Count by Evens
• Number Puzzle Frame: Count by Odds

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Early Elementary
Time Required: ~10 minutes
Difficulty: Fairly Easy (Does require a tiny bit of basic computer skills, like saving and locating files)
Cost: Free (except for whatever printer ink/toner gets used)

Materials:

• Paper
• One of the Number Frame Puzzle templates above
• Digital image of your choice

Supplies & Tools:

• Computer with internet access
• Printer
• Paper trimmer or scissors
• Glue stick

Instructions:

1. First, if you haven’t already done so, you need to select which image you would like to use and make sure you know where it is saved on your computer. I recommend using Google Images. Since this is for personal use, you don’t need to worry about violating any copyright or trademarks.



2. If using Google Images, click on the picture you want, then right-click and select “Save Picture As” to save the image to your computer.



3. Next, make sure you have the number frame template you would like to use saved to your computer. Here they are again:
   • Number Puzzle Frame: 1 to 10
   • Number Puzzle Frame: 11 to 20
   • Number Puzzle Frame: 31 to 30
   • Number Puzzle Frame: Count by Tens
   • Number Puzzle Frame: Count by Fives
   • Number Puzzle Frame: Count by Evens
   • Number Puzzle Frame: Count by Odds
4. Next, go to Picmonkey.com.
5. First click on Edit, then click on Computer in order to select an image from your computer. Locate the picture image that you want to use for your puzzle.



6. Once your image is open, click on the Overlay (butterfly-shaped) button on the left hand side.



7. At the top of the page, click on Add Your Own, then My Computer. Locate the Number Frame template you would like to use.



8. Now you should have the number frame template on top of your picture. Drag the Overlay and Layers boxes out of the way of your image. You could also just close them.



9. Next you just need to move the frame and resize it until it is covering the part of the picture that you want. You can move it by clicking in the middle of the overlay and dragging. You can resize the overlay by clicking on the corners or edges and dragging. Note: If you want to stretch the overlay, just hold down shift while you are dragging.



10. Next, you can crop the picture around the template. Note that you don’t really HAVE to do this step, since you’re going to cut out the pieces anyway, but you can save ink by getting rid of the parts of the image you don’t want. Click on the Basic Edits button near the top left. It looks like 3 sliders.



11. Click on Crop. Drag the corners of the crop box to fit around your number puzzle. Then hit Apply.



12. Now you are ready to save your image. Click on Save at the top.



13. Click on Save to My Computer. Make sure you know where the file is being saved on your computer and what it is named.



14. Next, print the file you just saved. On a PC, you can just right click the picture and select Print. It will give you options of how big you want to print your picture. Make sure you de-select the box that says “Fit Picture to Frame” to make sure none of your picture gets cut off. You could also insert the image into a document before printing if you want it to be sized a certain way.



15. After you’ve printed your picture, cut if out.
16. Give the pieces to the child to work on along with a blank piece of paper and a glue stick.

A great thing about these puzzles is that they are self-correcting. If the child does not put the numbers in the correct order, the picture will not look right.

However, if your child desires help figuring out the order, I fully recommend giving them some help. My 5 year old does not know how to count by 5’s, so when we did this puzzle, I wrote down all the numbers 1 to 50 on a piece of paper then had her circle every 5. She still might not know how to count by 5’s, but she’s gaining familiarity. Funny story: recently she was showing someone how she could count by tens by reading one of these number puzzles. After they expressed some awe at her amazing mathematical talents, she sadly admitted that she cheated. Apparently, she considers me having told her how to read numbers (10, 20, 30, etc.) as cheating.

Enjoy!

Related Links:

Math Activities for Kids
Best Gifts for Kids
Homemade Fun for Kids

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Kids seem to enjoy matching upper and lowercase letters so much in this homemade letter matching game, that I decided to try something similar with numbers. Admittedly, this number matching game a little more tedious if the child has not yet made the connection that a 2 digit number can be broken up into it’s tens component and units component (i.e. 25 is two tens plus five units). The Montessori Golden Beads and Montessori Number Symbol Cards are another way to teach this concept. However, once your child starts to get the hang of it, this is a quick and easy activity that your child can do on his or her own after you set up the “game”. The fact that they get to move around while they complete the task is an added bonus for many kids.

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten
Time Required: ~2 hours
Difficulty: Easy (though drawing all those dots gets to be a bit of a pain).
Cost: Less than $5 in used supplies.

Materials:

• Homemade Number Cards (optional)
• blank index cards
• markers
• contact paper

Supplies & Tools:

• scissors
• ruler

Instructions:

1. If you have not already made the Homemade Number Cards, write the numbers you want to help teach on a blank index card. I went up to 30.
2. Draw dots corresponding to the same set of numbers on separate index cards. I think it makes the most sense to draw the dots in rows of 10, so that the child can start to learn to associate the fact that 23, for example, is two rows of 10 plus 3 extra. To do this easily, I made a reference card as shown below. Since I used 3″x5″ cards, I drew my reference dots 1/2″ apart starting 1/4″ from the edge (so I drew tick marks at 1/4″, 3/4″, 1 and 1/4″, 1 and 3/4″, all the way to 4 and 3/4″)



3. “Laminate” the cards with contact paper or with a laminator.
4. Trim the edges of the laminated cards.

To play, tape all the number cards up on a wall in order. Then tape all the dot cards nearby in a big jumble. Have the child move all the dot cards and tape them underneath the appropriate written number card. The advantage of using the Homemade Number Cards is that they already have the answer on the back, so if the child wants to check that they found the right number, they can flip the card up and make sure the dots match.

Click here for more Counting and Number Recognition activities for kids.

Related Links

Pre-K Learning Activities
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Honestly, I made these homemade number cards out of necessity, not because they’re any fun by themselves. Sometimes it’s hard for kindergarteners to remember the numbers that don’t make any sense. Like why is 11 called eleven and not one-teen? Similarly hard numbers are 12, 13, 15, and 20. I believe in having kids figure things out for themselves instead of, for example, telling them that 20 means twenty. If your child can count, then the answer is on the back of the card. If they don’t know what the written number 11 means, have them count the dots on the back, and they can say, “Oh yeah, one-one is eleven.” Likely they will get tired of doing this and gain a little motivation to memorize the hard numbers. Another reason why I made these cards is so that we could play a number matching game similar to the letter matching game, which kids seem to enjoy.

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten
Time Required: ~2 hours
Difficulty: Easy (though drawing all those dots gets to be a bit of a pain).
Cost: Less than $5 in used supplies.

Materials:

• blank index cards
• markers
• contact paper

Supplies & Tools:

• scissors
• ruler

Instructions:

1. Write a number on each of the index cards. I chose to alternate colors and outline the number in black to make it look prettier. I also chose to go up to 30 since that’s how high kindergarteners are expected to recognize in my community.
2. Draw dots on the back of each index card corresponding to the number on the other side. I think it makes the most sense to draw them in rows of 10, so that the child can start to learn to associate the fact that 23, for example, is two rows of 10 plus 3 extra. To do this easily, I made a reference card as shown below. Since I used 3″x5″ cards, I drew my reference dots 1/2″ apart starting 1/4″ from the edge (so I drew tick marks at 1/4″, 3/4″, 1 and 1/4″, 1 and 3/4″, all the way to 4 and 3/4″)



3. “Laminate” the cards with contact paper or with a laminator.
4. Trim the edges of the laminated cards.

Click here for more Counting and Number Recognition activities for kids.

Related Links

Pre-K Learning Activities
Math Activities
Best Books for Preschool

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This is another really clever concept from the book Teaching Montessori in the Home: The School Years (Affiliate Link) that teaches number sequencing. I love that it’s a hands on way for a child to learn their “teens” and how to count by tens to one hundred. Ideally, this would be made out of wood, but since I think it’s probably effective enough not to be needed very long, I just made a printout instead. Since kindergarten children in my community are expected to know how to count and order numbers to thirty, I also made a strip for the “twenties.”

Recommended Age Range: Kindergarten
Time Required: ~15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Practically free, though you do need one sheet of thick printer paper like card stock and a printer.

Materials:

• 1 Sheet of Card Stock (I used 110 lb weight, but any paper thicker than normal printer paper would work, or you could laminate printer paper.)
• Seguin Boards document (You may need to install a free version of Adobe Acrobat if your computer does not already know how to read pdf files.)

Supplies & Tools:

• Printer
• Scissors

Instructions:

1. Print out the Seguin Boards document using card stock.
2. Cut along the thick dark lines. The white single digits 0 through 9 on the left hand column should each be their own little rectangle. The rest of the columns should be cut in strips.

The white strips and digits are for the children to manipulate. The grey strips are “answer keys”. Therefore, the child could use just the single digits to order the numbers from 0 to 9. They could use the strip with all 10’s and the digits 0-9 to make 10-19. They could use the same material to instead make 10 to 100. There is no answer key, but the 20-strip could be used for the child to order the numbers 20-29. Combining these boards with Montessori bead material makes the lesson even more meaningful.

Click here for more Counting and Number Recognition activities for kids.

Related Links

Montessori Learning Activities
Math Activities

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I read about this style of number cards in the book, Teaching Montessori in the Home: The School Years (Affiliate Link), and thought it was a really clever idea. Basically you just stack the cards on top of each other to make any number with each card representing either the thousands, hundreds, tens, or unit place. Then you can take a number (like 7401) and dissect it into its component parts (7 thousands + 4 hundreds + no tens + 1 unit). If you combine these cards with the Montessori Golden Beads, they become even more meaningful. I made a free, downloadable printout to make it extra easy to make a set of these cards, but you could also write the numbers by hand on cardstock or note cards cut to a workable size.

Recommended Age Range: Kindergarten and Early Elementary
Time Required: ~30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Practically free, though cardstock can be a little expensive if you have to buy a whole pack. However, you’ll only need 3 sheets.

Materials:

• 3 Sheets of Card Stock (I used 110 lb weight paper, but any heavy paper would work. You could also use regular paper and laminate it after printing, but that would obviously be more time-consuming.)
• Number-Symbol Cards document (You might need a free Adobe Acrobat reader if your computer does not already know how to read pdf files.)

Supplies & Tools:

• Printer
• Scissors

Instructions:

1. Print the Number Symbol Cards document onto card stock.
2. Cut along black lines.

There are many ways to use these cards. Since at present I work mainly with a kindergartener, we only use the tens and the units place cards, and take turns making and reading numbers. If you have Montessori bead material, you can use the beads to illustrate exactly what each number means.

Click here for more Counting and Number Recognition activities for kids.

Related Links

Montessori Learning Activities
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Best Books for Kindergarten

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I’ve always thought it would be a fun to make a treasure map for my preschooler. What actually motivated me to do it now was that I know a kindergartener who is having a hard time remembering how to identify certain numbers (like 11, 12, and 13). I wanted to come up with a fun way for him to be motivated to remember what each number means. Combining these two ideas worked out better than I imagined. The kids are motivated not only to read the numbers so they can follow the map and find the treasure, but I can actually hide the map itself and get them go through a series of less fun challenges (like matching upper and lower case letters) as a way to earn the map’s location. They also enjoy playing “pirates” with the map and treasure after we were done.

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Early Elementary
Time Required ~1 hour first time, ~30 minutes each time after
Difficulty Easy
Cost Less than $5 in used supplies (depending on how elaborate your treasure is)

Materials:

• free, downloadable treasure map document
• contact paper (or laminator)
• pen or marker
• tape (to attach signs to wall)
• tea bag (optional – to make paper look older)
• treasure! (I used a wooden jewelry box with mardi gras beads and fake money, but I don’t think it really matters. My kids would be just as motivated to find gummy snacks or a stuffed animal.)

Supplies & Tools:

• printer
• scissors
• glue

Instructions:

1. 1. Print out free, downloadable treasure map document.
   2. Use contact paper or laminator to laminate 8 signs which are visual clues to follow to find the treasure.
   3. Rip the edges off a blank sheet of paper and crumple it several times.

1. 1. [Optional] Make a cup of tea, then use the tea bag to paint the paper with tea. Let dry. (Drying took approximately 4 hours for me, but could be sped up with a blow dryer or dehydrator.)

1. 1. Decide where you want the child to walk (i.e. down the hallway, around the kitchen island, up the stairs, etc.). I use a rough draft or two to layout my map, so I don’t make mistakes on my “old” paper.

1. 1. Count the number of steps along each leg of the journey. My preschooler takes such small steps, that I generally am practically walking heel to toe when I count steps. I also adjust slightly to include harder numbers on my map (10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 20, etc.). So far I’ve followed along on the treasure hunts to correct along the way where needed, but I think with the visual signs, older kids could do it on their own.
   2. Place the start sign on the floor pointing in the right direction where you want the child to start.
   3. Tape the clue signs on the wall along the way and make a note of where they fall on your map.
   4. Make the final map using a pen or marker on your “old” paper. Cut out and glue the little pictures from the printout to show where the child should look for each of the clues on the journey (i.e. the Cyclops, the mermaids, etc.).

1. Give the child the map and show them where to start. (Or do what I do and hide the map and make them work for the map’s location.)

Click here for more Counting and Number Recognition activities for kids.

Related Links

Homemade Kindergarten Fun
Best Books for Kindergarteners
Pre-K Learning

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