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Free Printable Apple Theme Count and Clip Cards

August 8, 2021 by Natasha Leave a Comment

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These free printable apple theme counting clip cards are a fun, low-prep way to help your child improve their counting abilities, number recognition, finger strength, and fine motor skills. They’re fun for a preschool fall theme or a special apple theme.

For more fall themed educational fun, be sure to grab these free printable fall dot marker pages, free printable fall bingo, and fall themed matching cards.

A preview of six pages of printable apple theme count and clip cards. Each page has four cards with clipart and three numbers below each set of images. One number in each set correctly represents the number of clipart images.

This post includes affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission on purchases made through links at no additional cost to you.

How to print and and use counting clip cards

Counting clip cards, also called count and clip cards, are a low-prep, reusable, and hands-on way for your child to practice counting and number recognition.

Counting clip cards help your child develop and improve:

  • Number sense
  • Counting abilities
  • Number recognition
  • Subitizing skills
  • Fine motor skills

Subitizing is the ability to immediately recognize small quantities without consciously counting them. For example, you automatically know when you see four dots on a die that it means “4” without counting them “1, 2, 3, 4” the way a young child needs to. This is instant recognition is subitizing.

Fine motor skills are improved when your child uses a close pin to “clip” their answer. This can be very challenging for little fingers!

If you don’t have a clothespin (or if your child can’t operate one yet), that’s fine. Your child can mark the answers with a manipulative, like a counting bear, pompom, or nature treasure.

For a greater fine motor challenge and added interest, have your littler learner use large tongs or plastic tweezers to place a manipulative. In the image below, you can see my daughter using a graphing page with tweezers and wool balls:

a preschooler's hand using blue plastic tweezers to pick up a purple wool pompom

This set of counting bears comes with tongs, cups, and activity cards. It also comes with a reusable storage box. Our box arrived a little dented, but it’s held up to frequent use for eight months at the time of writing. This is the set we personally use and a great way to get started with math manipulatives if you don’t have any yet:

Neoformers Counting Bears with Matching and Sorting Cups, Preschool Math...
Neoformers Counting Bears with Matching and Sorting Cups, Preschool Math...
  • 【Counting Bears Toy】: Make fun for preschool learning. Counting Bears set includes 60pcs bears and 6 cups, 10 activity cards, 2 dices and 1...
  • 【Toddler Educational Toy】: Great teaching toy for basic mathematics concepts. Matching and sorting colorful cups and rainbow counting bears help...
  • 【Toy for Preschool Learning】: Counting bears as Montessori toys with dices and cups for toddlers help them notice differences between things and...
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Materials needed for counting clip cards

You don’t need much time or materials to print and use these apple theme counting cards:

  • Your free printable. The download is located further down the post. Look for the row of purple arrows.
  • Paper or cardstock. If you’re not laminating the pages, use cardstock. If you are laminating, I recommend 32 lb “premium” paper. It has a surprisingly non-premium price, is thicker than regular printer paper, and is bright white for vibrant images. To see it in use, see this post with the best paper for printables.
  • Laminator and laminating pouches. Optional, but recommended to make the cards reusable. Printables typically only last for a couple of uses with young children if they’re not laminated. Laminating at home is easier than dragging your kids to the office supply store to get them laminated and a laminator pays for itself quickly compared to the cost of having individual sheets done.
  • Scissors or a paper trimmer/cutter. I use this paper trimmer.
  • A clothespin or manipulative to mark answers. If your pages are laminated, your child can use a dry erase marker or a dry erase crayon.
hp Paper Printer | 8.5 x 11 Paper | Premium 32 lb | 1 Ream - 500 Sheets |...
Fiskars Craft Supplies: Paper Cutter, Paper Trimmer for Crafts, Photos, and...
Scotch Thermal Laminator, 2 Roller System for a Professional Finish, Use...
hp Paper Printer | 8.5 x 11 Paper | Premium 32 lb | 1 Ream - 500 Sheets |...
Fiskars Craft Supplies: Paper Cutter, Paper Trimmer for Crafts, Photos, and...
Scotch Thermal Laminator, 2 Roller System for a Professional Finish, Use...
hp Paper Printer | 8.5 x 11 Paper | Premium 32 lb | 1 Ream - 500 Sheets |...
hp Paper Printer | 8.5 x 11 Paper | Premium 32 lb | 1 Ream - 500 Sheets |...
Fiskars Craft Supplies: Paper Cutter, Paper Trimmer for Crafts, Photos, and...
Fiskars Craft Supplies: Paper Cutter, Paper Trimmer for Crafts, Photos, and...
Scotch Thermal Laminator, 2 Roller System for a Professional Finish, Use...
Scotch Thermal Laminator, 2 Roller System for a Professional Finish, Use...

What is a dry erase crayon? It’s basically a wax crayon. We use the Stabilo Woody crayons/pencils and they’re amazing. The Stabilo Woody line has a large, easy to grasp wood body. They’re water soluble and can be used as watercolor pencils or in lieu of a dry erase marker. They wipe off easily with a very damp cloth or paper towel, which makes clean up quick adn easy. They can even be used to make coloring pages reusable. See them in action in this post with free printable dinosaur coloring pages.

two hands holding a red box for Stabilo woody colored pencils over a partially colored dinosaur coloring page

Even if you have a clothespin and don’t need them for this particular activity, check out the Stabilo Woody line.

Sale
Stabilo Woody Coloring Pencils with Sharpener , Multicolored
Stabilo Woody Coloring Pencils with Sharpener , Multicolored
  • PERFECT FOR KIDS - The STABILO woody 3 in 1 is perfect for kids to draw and paint and ideal for parents too – it washes off windows and is suitable...
  • UNIQUE MULTI-TALENT - STABILO woody 3 in 1 coloring pencils also function as wax crayons and watercolors, making them ideal for aquarelle work. They...
  • LONG LASTING - STABILO woody 3 in1 pencils are long lasting as their thick shaft contains as much color as eight standard colored pencils.
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How to use counting clip cards

First, download your printable and print the pages you want. The cards have numbers 1-12 with 4 cards per page.

Laminate the pages before cutting them out, unless your laminator instructs otherwise. This saves you from cutting everything twice.

Cut the cards out.

Count, clip, and enjoy! My daughter is still working on left to right order. She’s capable of counting to 12 by herself now, but I still like to review and count with her by counting from left to right, top to bottom. This is reading order in English and Spanish. (If you’re new here – we’re a bilingual household. Be sure to check out these free printable Spanish alphabet tracing pages to help your preschooler learn Spanish, too.)

If you don’t have a clothespin, your child can place a manipulative on top of their answer or mark it with a dry erase crayon/marker. They’re a fantastic art supply that will quickly become a go-to favorite!

A mockup of a count and clip card with 6 red apples. Below the apples are the numbers 8 - 6 - 7. The 6 is circled in red.

You can make the cards self-checking for your child by marking a mark with a Sharpie on the back of each card that corresponds to the position of the correct number. You can also mark the correct answer with a sticker, as long as it sticks well on the laminated card.

Free printable apple theme count and clip cards PDF download

Alright, let’s get to the free printables!

Please note that the lovely apple clipart is copyright by Digital Artsi and is used under license.

Like all free preschool printables on The Artisan Life, this printable is licensed for personal and classroom use. You are also welcome to use it with scout troops, homeschool co-ops, etc. Basically, as long as you are personally organizing the activity, it’s fine to use these. Yes, you are also welcome to leave it for a substitute. Thank you to the considerate readers who’ve emailed to ask.

You are not licensed to redistribute or sell the printouts or digital files to others. Just send your friends or coworkers to this post so they can download their own copies!

If you agree to this license, click below:

five purple arrows pointing down on a white background
Text "click here to download your printable"

I hope your little learner has lots of fun with these apple themed counting clip cards!

Be sure to grab these additional printables for your fall theme below:

Fall Theme Preschool Printables

Looking for free and low-cost preschool printables for your fall theme? You've come to the right place!

11+ Free Fall Dot Marker Printables 

Do a Dot marker printables are no-prep fun for toddlers and preschoolers! Use them with dauber markers or small manipulatives for a greater fine motor challenge.

Free Printable Fall Bingo

Reading is not required to play this cute fall picture bingo game! Toddlers and preschoolers can play it as a matching game or the whole family can get involved.

Free Printable Fall Gross Motor Dice

Help your child get the wiggles out with these free printable fall gross motor dice! They're perfect as a brain break or fun way to get active on a cold, rainy day.

Fall Complete the Sequence Printables

Completing sequences, or "extending the sequence" in education lingo, is an important skill for preschoolers and pre-k students to learn. Help them develop their pattern skills with these fall themed pattern printables!

Free Printable Fall Matching Game 

This free printable fall matching game is a great way to improve your child's attention to detail and visual discrimination skills. Even young toddlers can play with your help and older children can play as a face down memory game.

Fall More or Less Printables

Help your child develop thier pre-math skills with these more or less worksheets! Pages include quantites of 1 or 2 or 1-5 so you can pick whichever your child is ready for.

Text "Free printable apple theme count + clip cards" above a preview of three pages of apple themed count and clip cards. Each page has four cards with apple themed clip art. There are three numbers below each set of clipart - two distractor answers and the correct answer.
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Filed Under: Preschool Math Printables, Preschool worksheets, Printable

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natashalh - the artisan life

Hi, I’m Natasha! I’m so glad you’re here.

I’m a former classroom teacher with a Masters of the Arts in Teaching turned WAHM to an energetic Latina preschooler. I help busy parents and teachers by sharing free printables that educate and entertain young children & planner printables to help you keep tabs on your busy life.

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