One More One Less with Dot Stickers

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Understanding the concept of one more and one less is an important step in acquiring a strong numer sense for preschoolers and kindergartners.

What is One More One Less?

One more and one less activities ask your little one to determine what is one plus a certain number and what is one minus that number.

But it is not just about being able to calculate what is one more and what is one less of a number but also knowing what number is one more or one less.

Here’s How to Set Up One More One Less with Dot Stickers

The set up for this activity is super simple. Get out your white paper roll, ruler and sharpie and create four (or more) boxes of three frames. The boxes will help keep the dot stickers organized and help your little one visualize that the number on the left is one less and the number on the right is one more.

In the middles box write the number you want your little to use. For my four year old I decided to keep it to under 20. For preschoolers, keep it to under 10.

Using Counters

Using counters to help your little one understand math is a very effective way to reinforce math concepts such as addition, subtraction and much more. At home you can turn almost anything into a counter.

I like to use squeeze pouch caps as counters. You can also use small toys, blocks, pasta shells or cheerios.

Counting Dot Stickers

Have your little one count out one less and one more than the number in the center box. If my daughter was unable to figure out what the number was, she used counters. She counted out the number in the center box using the counters and then took one away and then stuck that many dot stickers up in the box on the left.

Then she added one back to make the number in the center box again and then added one more to give the number on the right. Then she stuck that many dot stickers in the box on the right.

Total Hit

This was such a great counting practice activity for my four year old that I created more boxes for her to practice! She really got into it and even though she had trouble with some of the larger numbers she quickly was able to figure what they were using the counters.

She did not have trouble with all the larger numbers. For instance, she quickly figured that one more than 19 was 20! We will definitely be doing this again to help develop that her number-sense skills!

Supplies

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