Learning Numbers with Water Balloon Basketball

Learning numbers is super fun with this water balloon basketball game! This move and learn math activity is an excellent way to teach number recognition!

Preschool number learning activity with water balloons!

This summer I am joining up with a few of my kid blogger friends to bring you the Summer of Fun Blog Hop. Each month we will be posting activities related to a specific summer theme. This month we are posting water play activities! Check out all of the other posts below.

I think most kids enjoy playing with water balloons and my son is definitely one of them. As a result, we love doing learning activities with water balloons. They definitely up the fun factor of any activity.

This game is very easy to set up and even if you don’t have a basketball hoop, you can play it! There are several ways you can change it up to make it work for you.

Materials Needed:

  • Water balloons
  • Permanent marker
  • Dice (we love our large foam dice from Dollar Tree)
  • Basketball hoop (affiliate)

Setting Up the Water Balloon Game

1. Fill up a bunch of water balloons with water.

2. Write a number 1-6 on each balloon.

Learning Numbers with Water Balloons

Roll dice and count the dots to determine the number represented.

I instructed Evan to throw the dice. He loves tossing it into the air as high as he can. Then he checked to see which number was facing up. When we first started using dice for activities, he had to count the dots one by one to determine which number was showing. This is perfect for teaching kids about one to one correspondence. We’ve played so many games with dice that now he can automatically identify the number represented by the dots.

Water balloons with numbers on them.

Once he determined which number the dice landed on, he looked through our bucket of water balloons to find one with that number written on it. He picked up the balloon and then threw it through the basketball hoop.

Find the number and throw the water balloon

If you don’t have a basketball hoop, you can just have your child throw the water balloon in the air or at another object. If you would like to work on bigger numbers you can include two dice and add the numbers together.

This was a really fun way to spend an evening. My husband even got involved and he and Evan had a blast throwing water balloons in the basketball hoop!

Summer of Fun Blog Hop

 

More Summer of Fun Water Play Posts!

Wet vs. Dry : Infant Explorations from Bambini Travel

Making Daisy Soup from Crafty Kids at Home

10 Fantastic Experiments With Water from Planet Smarty Pants