Free Printable Dinosaur Counting Grid Game for Preschool

Do you love the beginning of the school year? I do! I think it’s a whole lot more fun than the actual New Year…lol! I love all the new supplies, taking time to reorganize our manipulatives and, of course, I’m loving BUYING new manipulatives since we are getting ready to start kindergarten with my youngest daughter. Her older sisters all did kindergarten when we lived overseas and I have to say, it is SO much fun to go shopping for all these new supplies!! Shh…. no one tell my hubby…lol!

I’ve actually had to sneak the manipulatives into my office area because as soon as my daughter sees them, she *has* to play with them. So I hid away the dinosaur math counters that I got last week, until I had this super cute set of free printable dinosaur counting grids ready. She had such a fun morning exploring with them!

I know they say “preschool” in the title, but you can also use them for kindergarten (like my daughter) if you need some more reinforcement of counting skills.

To Prepare the Dinosaur Counting Grid Game: Print the file found below. Laminate the counting grids and the large cube inserts if you choose to use those. To use the printable cube, simply cut on the outside line and fold on the inner lines to form a cube. Tape the edges to hold the cube together. If you choose to use the larger cube inserts, cut apart the dice cards and place them inside the windows of the differentiated instruction cube.

Please note- there are two sets of cube inserts and cubes included. One has the numbers 1-3 twice and the other has the numbers 1-6. I recommend using the 1-3 cube with the counting to 10 game as it will make the game last longer. For the counting to 20 grid, you could use either cube.

How To Use the Dinosaur Counting Grid Game: Roll the cube and place that number of math counters on the spaces of the grid. Let your child decide where to place them. There is no right or wrong way to use the grid.

My daughter had a very strong urge to place dinosaurs on the matching colors, so I did need to guide her a bit to show her that they didn’t need to match. This probably stems a bit from her OCD and the fact that we have worked on matching & sorting colors so much.

Ways you can use the Dinosaur Counting Grid Game:

One-to-one correspondence- teaches the child that each dinosaur is “1”.

Addition- all of the numbers rolled “add” up to the total number (you can also use 2 dice and add the numbers together on each turn.

Subtraction- start with the counting grid full of math counters. With each roll “subtract” that number of dinosaurs from the grid.