Play Number Leap Frog

See more activities in: Preschool, Counting & Numbers

In this leap frog game, your child will use her muscles to jump from lily pad to lily pad and use those math skills to count as she hops along. She'll develop her basic number skills and practice counting. This is a great way to help your child build important math skills and stay active while she's doing it!

What You Need:

  • Blue plastic tarp or large tablecloth
  • Green butcher paper or poster board
  • Construction paper or poster board
  • Markers
  • Tape
  • Large open space
  • 5-10 large hula hoops (optional)

Set-Up:

  1. Spread out the blue tarp (the “pond”) on the ground in an open space indoors or outdoors.
  2. Place green circles (“lily pads”) of butcher paper on the pond. Put the lily pads close enough so the children can jump safely from one to the next.
  3. Cut out numbers and place one on each lily pad. Note: Tape everything down for security.
  4. Decorate the rest of the pond with stuffed frogs, ducks, and so on.
  5. For an extra fun touch, you can place a hula hoop around each numbered lily pad. This will help your child to really use those muscles of hers as the hula hoops will create larger spaces in between the lily pads. For some added fun, when your child lands on a lily pad inside a hula hoop, she can call out the number she has landed on and then try to make the hula hoop go around her waist that number of times! Or she can try to "jump rope" with the hula hoop as many times as she can up to the number she landed on.

What to Do:

  1. This activity works best with at least two kids, so that the children can hop over one another like in the game of leap frog. But you can also do this activity with one child.
  2. Gather the kids around the pond.
  3. Call attention to the numbers on the lily pads and ask the children if they can name the numbers.
  4. Tell the children that they are going to take turns being frogs. They are going to jump from lily pad to lily pad (and over each other if possible!) and count while jumping, starting with number one.
  5. Call on a child to start. He can jump to the lily pad with the number one and count or say, “One!” The other children can say the numbers and count as they jump too. You can do this with several "frogs" at once or you can let each child go one at a time, hopping around to different numbers. What's important is that your child hears you call a number out, and then identify on her own where that number is by leaping to its lily pad. Then she'll get a chance to say the number aloud either by counting to it or by repeating the number.
  6. Keep things fun, but make mental notes as you're watching the kids play. Can each child count and say the numbers as they jump? When do they hesitate? Which numbers cause them a little trouble and which are a breeze?

This is a great game to play to help with number recognition skills and build a strong math foundation for your preschooler's future learning. Not to mention it's a silly and fun way to get lots of exercise and keep those minds and bodies active!