How to Teach Your Preschooler their Phone Number

I know the importance of my preschoolers learning my phone number, yet I continued putting it off. Perhaps I was intimidated by the fact they would have to memorize a sequence of numbers, or I felt like my young children weren’t ready. After dragging my feet, I finally set up this preschool phone number activity. And do you know what? It took this introduction and a simple follow-up tactic to make it stick in a matter of days. This post is a great resource for simple ways to teach your preschooler their phone number and ideas for extra practice.

Table of Contents:

1. Teaching kids
2. Empower your child with skills to thrive.
3. Supplies
4. Set-Up
5. Conversation starters
6. Hidden math skills
7. Math Quick Tip
8. Teaching Phone Number

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Teaching kids

Now, let’s be honest. If my phone number were the iPad unlock code that needed to be memorized, my child would have it down in four minutes. No, wait. Make that under three minutes. It’s wild how quickly preschoolers can learn a 6-digit passcode into a device! (What’s four more numbers?!)

It is important to teach children essential life skills such as memorizing a phone number, practicing addresses, and recognizing and spelling last names! This personal information will also help them if they get lost.

Supplies

Here at Days with Grey, I keep supplies simple. I look to use items you may already own or add items that will be used for multiple purposes. Unifix cubes are among the most essential math supplies for helping preschoolers build number sense.

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Set-Up

I like to set up simple learning activities for kids the night before so my children have something to play with as they eat breakfast and I drink my tea (HOT!). I call these Breakfast Invitations. They are simple learning games that begin the day with play. Many families use my ideas for Breakfast Invitations, after nap, or with dinner prep!

1. Tape down your white paper.
2. Create rectangles for each number on your phone.
3. Add a number from your phone number to each rectangle.
4. Add Unifix Cubes to the left side of the activity.

In the morning, invite your children to build their phone numbers using the Unifix Cubes.

Conversation starters

How can you begin talking about important phone numbers? Here is how I like to introduce this critical information to my young child.

You can say:

• This is mom’s phone number.
• Can you see it here? It reads: 123 (pause) 456 (pause) 7899.
• Show me this phone number with your blocks.

Additional Ideas: Sing your phone number to the tune Mary Had a Little Lamb, say your number every time you pull into the driveway, practice writing it, use an upsidedown muffin tin to resemble a number pad, and practice tapping the number. The muffin tin activity is on The Soft Skill Activity Cards.

Hidden math skills

This phone number activity also has a hidden math skill to practice quantity!

Quantity is understanding the number name and relating that name to an actual number of objects.

By Kindergarten, your child will be asked to understand that the last number name said tells the number of objects counted. The number of objects is the same regardless of their arrangement or the order in which they are counted.

It sounds simple, yet It isn’t.

Related: Here are the best math activities for toddlers and preschoolers!

As adults, we understand this, and it seems obvious: The number symbol 8 means eight objects. However, number sense takes time for children to develop. There is a difference between counting and quantity, which needs to be practiced repeatedly.

Using Unifix Cubes with this phone number activity will help improve number sense.

Math Quick Tip

• Touch objects as you count each one
• Count out snacks as they enter the bowl
• Count fingers and toes, remembering to touch each one as you count

Something to think about: Memorizing a telephone number has little to do with quantity. But if you can practice a way for your child to build each number, there is a better chance of getting it to stick.

After we finished this Breakfast Invitation, we put each number on a sticky note. I then hung it on the fridge and in my five-year-old’s room to continue saying aloud.

When will you teach your preschooler your phone number?