Nutcracker Counting Activities for your Preschooler

The story of the Nutcracker has been inspiring children of all ages for as long as it has been performed. As the holiday season begins, it’s the perfect time to try some of these Nutcracker Counting Activities with your preschooler. Be sure to watch a live or video performance of the classic to inspire your young student! 

Nothing encourages young learners more than building a lesson around an inspiring theme. The season of nutcrackers is the perfect time to practice counting because you can have so much fun together using these zany wooden statues as a learning tool. I love to do holiday homeschool lessons with my kids because I know they are going to absorb so much more information when we tie it all to something they absolutely love. 

Our adorable Nutcracker Counting Book is a great way to introduce your child to the concept of numbers and counting or practice skills already learned. But in addition to the book, I’ve put together this list of Nutcracker Counting Activities you can use with kids ages 2 to 7 for extra work on number sense, number recognition, tens grouping, counting, one-to-one correspondence, and more. 

If you don’t have a couple of Nutcrackers or Nutcracker gnomes, I definitely recommend that small investment so you can take learning with nutcrackers to the next level. 

Going Nuts with Nutcracker Counting Activities

Nuts are the obvious first place to start counting. You can use the nuts with any nutcracker counting worksheets to practice one-to-one correspondence. Have your child place one nut on each number or on each image or in each square on a ten-square graph. Try a variety of nuts in the shell and do the counting activities as often as your child wants to repeat them.

Try walnuts, chestnuts, peanuts, pecans, almonds, hickory nuts, or acorns. If you have nuts in your backyard, by all means, use those. Otherwise, you can pick up nuts in the shell in the holiday aisle of your grocery store and use them later for roasting or decorations.

Another great way to practice counting with nuts is to arrange nuts in rows and lines in a grid pattern and count each nut as you place it. You can use simple graph paper to help with this activity if you like. 

If you have a nutcracker, have the statue pretend to actually crack nuts, and count each nut that gets “cracked”. A high-quality nutcracker can actually crack the nuts for you, but be careful with nutcrackers that are cheaply made and purely for decoration. Most are not practical anymore.

Using the Nutcracker Ballet for Counting Activities

Consider watching the ballet with your child and counting the various characters in each scene. You can pause and count children at the party, nutcrackers, sugar plum fairies, dolls, mice, snowflakes, and more.

A book about the Nutcracker Ballet would also give you a method of counting characters if watching a movie is not an option. Look through the book and count the characters and objects that you see. 

The Nutcracker Counts

With your preschooler, pretend that the nutcracker prince has come to life and is counting all of the snowflakes with Clara in the magical snowy forest. You could even get snowflake stickers to place on construction paper as the “nutcracker” counts out loud. Pretend play is very powerful. You could take the nutcracker from room to room and have your child pretend to be the statue counting different objects in each room such as Christmas ornaments, wrapped gifts, cookies, or bows. 

Nutcracker Counting Activities as you Dance

Listening to the music of the Tchaikovsky ballet is a wonderfully enriching experience for your preschooler. Why not dance along to the music and count the beat or count your dance steps? This physical counting activity will help your child make a whole-body connection to the numbers and what they stand for through kinesthetic sensory input. Family dance parties are also a great way to get kids up and moving and stretching their bodies. 

Nutcracker Counting Book

This ebook is so cute and you can use it in so many different ways for nutcracker counting activities. Besides matching nuts to each image, number, or square — try matching snowflake stickers or nutcracker stickers. Any Christmas sticker would work. Have the nutcracker statue count again, but this time he would be counting on the pages of the book.

Play the ballet as you work on the pages of the book because any time you can play classical music for your child it is beneficial. You should also have your child point and count, trace the numbers with a pencil or marker, fill in the ten squares, and practice counting on every page.

Your kids won’t be just practicing counting as they work on Nutcracker Counting Activities — they will also be working on fine motor skills, problem-solving, story-telling skills, communication, and visual perceptual skill-building. 

We have so many different Counting Books and counting ideas! Check out these posts for more help and fun with counting.

Football Gnomes Preschool Counting Book

Christmas Gnomes Counting Book and Activities

Valentine’s Day Counting Activities + Preschool Pack

Easter Gnomes Counting Book

If you are looking for more Nutcracker fun, you might love this collection of crafts!

Download the Nutcracker Preschool Counting Book

Our Nutcracker themed counting book features the characters from the book and ballet and all things counting and numbers, to commemorate this holiday season. Your child will learn to count to twenty, recognize numbers and number words to twenty, practice one-to-one correspondence, complete ten-square activities, and more!

To download the Nutcracker Themed Preschool Counting Book, simply add it to your cart and then checkout. **Upon checkout, you will be added to my Weekly Newsletter list.**