These free printable Cinco de Mayo 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 a great complement to a lesson about Cinco de Mayo, world cultures, or Mexico. (Make sure to grab these free printable Cinco de Mayo dot marker coloring pages while you’re here, too.) I hope you enjoy!
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If you’re teaching your child about Mexican culture, why not share a bit of Spanish, too? My husband is a Hispanic immigrant and we are a bilingual household, so I create and share Spanish language preschool printables. I hope you stop by this page to see all the free Spanish preschool printables currently available on The Artisan Life.
How to print and and use count and clip cards
Counting clip cards, also called count and clip cards, are a fun and engaging way to practice counting and number recognition.
Count and clip cards help your child develop and improve:
- Number sense
- Counting abilities
- Number recognition
- Subitizing skills
- Fine motor skills
You know what subitizing is, even if you aren’t familiar with the word. Subitizing is the ability to recognize small quantities without counting them. For example, you automatically know when you see two dots on a die that it means “2” without counting “1, 2.”
These cards also improve fine motor skills. Working a clothespin is challenging for little fingers!
It’s fine if you don’t have a clothespin. Your child can mark their answer with a manipulative, like a counting bear or a pompom. For an extra fine motor challenge, have your child use plastic tongs or tweezers to place the manipulative.
We use this set of counting bears that comes with a pair of tongs. It also comes activity cards, sorting cups, and a reusable storage box. It’s the set we personally use and a great way to get started with math manipulatives if you don’t have any yet:
- 【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...
Materials needed for count clip cards
You don’t need much time or materials to print and use this low-prep activity.
- Your free printable Cinco de Mayo count and clip cards. The download is located further down the post.
- Paper or cardstock. If you’re not laminating, use cardstock for greater durability.
- If you are laminating, I recommend 32 lb “premium” paper. It’s sturdier than normal printer paper and produces bright, beautiful images.
- Laminator and laminating pouches.
- These are optional, but highly recommended.
- Printables typically only last for a couple of uses with young children if they’re not laminated.
- A laminator usually pays for itself after about 20 pages when compared to laminating at the store.
- 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 (even better) a dry erase crayon.
We currently use Stabilo Woody 3-in-1 pencils instead of dry erase markers. They’re basically a wax crayon inside a large wood pencil body that’s easy for children to grasp. They’re water soluble and can be used as watercolor pencils or as a dry erase marker.
Stabilo Woody crayons wipe off easily with a very slightly damp cloth. Unlike dry erase markers, Woodies don’t have ink. This means they don’t smell and they don’t stain.
If that sounds too good to be true, check out the video in this post with free printable dinosaur coloring pages. I demonstrate how well they color on laminated pages and how quickly they erase.
Even if you do have a clothespin and don’t need them for this particular activity, check out the Stabilo Woody line. They have rich, creamy colors and my daughter loves them for drawing and coloring.
- Washable
- XXL lead applies as much pigment as 8 colored pencils at once
- Large width ideal for smaller hands
How to use counting clip cards
First, download your printable and print the pages you want. The cards have numbers 1-12 with 4 numbers per page.
Laminate the pages before cutting them out. Laminating first saves time because you cut once instead of twice.
Cut the cards out. Make sure to leave the number choices along the bottom of each card attached to the image portion of the card.
Count, clip, and enjoy! My daughter is still working on left to right order, so I reinforce it by counting from left to right, top to bottom because this is reading order in English in Spanish.
I frequently hold the card for my daughter when she wants to clip the number. As a younger three year old, she sometimes needs both hands to operate her clothespin.
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 or marker.
Free printable Cinco de Mayo count and clip cards download
Alright, let’s get to the free printables!
Like all free preschool printables on The Artisan Life, this preschool math 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.
You are not licensed to redistribute 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:
I hope your little learner has lots of fun with these Cinco de Mayo themed counting clip cards! Make sure to grab free preschool Spanish printables while you’re here:
Spanish Preschool Printables
Help your child learn their letters and alphabet in Spanish with these free printable alphabet tracing printables.
Help your child practice their counting and one to one correspondence in English and Spanish with these fun dinosaur ten frames.
Help your child get their wiggles out with this free printabel gross motor game in English and Spanish.
These Valentine's Day counting mats can be used to practice counting and as an English : Spanish matching game.
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