Acorn Counting Cards (free printable)

The air is starting to get crisp in our little pocket of the California woods and the large oak tree in our front yard is dropping acorns so I know that fall is on its way (yay!). My toddler loves collecting acorns and also loves counting so I wanted to combine the two this year as I’m trying to incorporate a little more learning into our play and nature explorations. 

My daughter is good at counting all the way up to 20, but at this point it’s just rote memorization without an actual concept for what the numbers mean or represent. So, I came up with these acorn counting cards to help her connect the acorns—er dots—between the numerals and the amounts.

We had so much fun collecting all of our acorns and then using the acorn counting cards by placing the real acorns on top of the illustrated acorns. I know this is something we’ll do throughout the season and she’ll continue to get better and better at her numbers. I’m excited to share the free printable with you so that you can do the same at your home.

If you don’t live in a place where you can collect acorns in nature, you can use any other small parts. If you want to keep with the theme, these natural wood acorn pieces are adorable and would be perfect for this. You could also make an activity out of painting or finishing them if you wanted.

One thing to note is that acorns need to be treated before they are brought indoors. Otherwise, you’ll also be inviting in maggots and other unwanted bugs. We generally use our acorns outside (weather permitting) and then put them back out for the squirrels when we’re done. If you plan to use them indoors, you’ll need to place them on rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and then bake them at a low temperature in the oven.

For reference, here are links to the explorers basket and round galvanized tray that we used.

You can download our Free Acorn Counting Cards Printable here! 

Enjoy!

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