Math Activities for Kids

Halloween Addition Game: Pick-and-Solve Sticks

October 1, 2015 By Terri Thompson

Why are flashcards always the default method for learning math facts?

I get that flashcards are easy. The problem is that they are B-O-R-I-N-G.

My daughter has been working on brushing up on her math facts and brought home some flashcards from school. After a couple of days of dragging ourselves through them, she asked for more interesting way to practice.

Well, being the good blogger that I am, I told her I’d come up with something. That’s when this Halloween addition game was born.

Practice math facts with this fun Halloween addition game, Pumpkin Pick-and-Solve Sticks. It's a fun way to add some holiday fun to your math practice.

Awhile back, I found some fun ways to practice math facts and any of these ideas would have worked.

But this time I wanted something a little different. So, I got out some paint and some craft sticks and got to work on these Halloween Math Facts Pick-and-Solve Sticks.

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Supplies needed

Large craft sticks
Orange paint
Black Sharpie
Pumpkin Stickers
Can (or any sort of container to hold the sticks)

How to make this Halloween addition game

To create the pick-and-solve sticks, I painted 16 large crafts stick with orange paint.

I only needed 16 for our set of math facts. Just make what you need for the set of math facts you’re working on.

After the paint dried, I wrote a math fact at the bottom of each stick.

Finally, I put a small jack-o-lantern sticker at the opposite end of the sticks.

I placed all the sticks, math fact side down, in a can. (You can find the instructions for our jack-o-lantern can here.) Try not to use a see-through container to keep the math problems a mystery until someone pulls one out of the can. Your Halloween addition game is ready to go!

You can use these pick-and-solve sticks in a couple of different ways:

Have your child pull a stick out one-by-one and try to solve the problem.

Let two or more kids take turns pulling out sticks to work on math facts together.

Practice with a timer. How many addition problems can you solve in 30 seconds?

Let your child come up with their own game! The possibilities are endless.

The 2nd grade blogging squad has been hard at work this week with plenty of fun pumpkin ideas. Check out the rest of the posts:

Pumpkin Patch Arrays to Learn Multiplication by School Time Snippets
Free Pumpkin Shape Matching Game by Life Over C’s
Second Grade Noun and Predicate Pumpkin Activity by Sugar Aunts
How to Carve a Pumpkin Writing Prompts by Still Playing School
How to Set Up a Pumpkin Engineering Task Your Second Graders Will Love by Thriving STEM
Pumpkin Seed Place Value – Subtraction Math Fact by Rainy Day Mum

You may also enjoy one of these fun math activities:

Spider Skip Counting Puzzles

Math Fact Sticks

Math Fact Islands

10 Fun Ways to Practice Counting On

September 18, 2015 By Terri Thompson

One of the most basic math concepts your child will work on in kindergarten is counting on.

It’s one step beyond counting. Basically, counting on is counting beginning from any number other than one. It sets the stage for addition and subtraction. (You can find a more detailed explanation here at this Math Homework 101 post.)

Since this such a super-important concept, it’s one you want to practice counting on at home. Luckily there are so many fun (and easy) ways to practice. Here are 10 of my favorite ideas that I’ve found.

It's so easy to practice counting on with your kids especially if you try one of these fun math games and activities that are perfect for school or home.

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Pictured from left to right in the top photo.

1.Grab a deck of cards and play Snap +1. Lessons Learnt Journal has all the details.

2.Grab some dice and play this fun dice game from Danya Banya.

3.Before you put away the dice and cards, play a fun round of Counting On: The Card Game.

4.Play a game of hopscotch with a counting on twist. Find the instructions at Coffee Cups and Crayons.

5.Use dice and counters to play a simple hands on game from This Reading Mama.

Pictured left to right.

6. Go on a nature walk and practice counting on along the way. You can find some great examples here.

7. Practice using a hundred chart. Here’s a fun driveway hundred chart game that will get your kids moving and learning.

8. Play Chutes and Ladders. Yep, this classic game is such an easy way to practice. Get you kids to say the numbers out loud as they move their game piece for extra emphasis.

9. Use number pebbles from The Imagination Tree for an easy hands-on way to practice.

10. Play with number towers. The Activity Mom shows you how to make some. Just remember, start with a number other than one!

Have fun learning with all these fun ways to practice counting on!

Practice Counting On in Nature

September 2, 2015 By Terri Thompson

In my most recent Math Homework 101 post, I talked about the concept of counting on and how it sets the stage for addition and subtraction. Since it’s such an important concept, I wanted to show you just how easy it is to practice counting on at home.

Seriously friends, you can do this.

We’re going to get outside, have a little fun in nature, and do a little sneaky math practice. Here are some simple ways you can practice counting on in nature.

You can practice counting on anywhere, even outside. Here are some fun ideas to practice this math concept outside in nature.

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All of our examples came from a nature walk we took recently.

I had no special supplies and no concrete plan. I wanted to show you just how easy it is to practice counting on.

You can take just 5 minutes a day for a bit of simple practice.

Here are some of examples from our nature hike.

Example 1:

There were leaves scattered across the path. We started with a pile of 3 and continued counting on to find out how many leaves there were total. 3, 4, 5, 6.

Example 2:

We found a tree full of berries. We imagined we had a basket with 5 berries in it, but we needed 10 berries. My girls used counting on to find out how many more we needed. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Example 3:

We stopped by a butterfly garden. We pretended we already had 3 flowers and wanted to pick the rest of the pink flowers. (Just pretending, no actual picking involved.) 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Seems so simple, doesn’t it?

It really is simple. You don’t need anything special to practice counting on at home.

You can practice on a nature hike, in your backyard, or at the park. Practice on the walk home from school or while running errands. It’s easy and it’s fun!

For more information about counting on, including a detailed explanation, please see Math Homework 101: Counting On.

Try one of these activities to practice counting on:

Counting On Card Game

10 Fun Ways to Practice Counting On

Counting On Planet Puzzles at The Kindergarten Connection

Math Homework 101: What Is Counting On?

August 19, 2015 By Terri Thompson

What is counting on?

Counting on is an essential skill that your kids will start working on in kindergarten (or even earlier)!

It’s not a difficult skill, but it is a crucial skill that sets the stage for addition and subtraction.

What is counting on? Simply put, it’s the act of counting forward starting at a number other than 1.

This skill is listed in the Common Core Standards for kindergarten. K.CC.A.2 says “Count forward beginning from a given number with the known sequence (instead of having to begin with 1).”

So yes, it’s important and yes, your kindergartner will be working on it this year.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links and other affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details.

What is counting on? It's an important math concept that your child will work on in elementary school. Find out what it is and how to practice at home.

How can you practice?

It’s so simple to practice the concept of counting on at home. You don’t need special worksheets, tools, or even a formal learning time.

Practice on a walk or when you’re driving the kids home for school.

All is takes is a question: Can you start at 3 and count to 10?

It’s that simple.

If they’re still learning the concept, count with them.

Pretty soon, with practice, they’ll be able to do it on their own. Have them start at 5 or 6 or 7.

Have they mastered the smaller numbers? Start at 22 and count to 30. Or start at 46 and count to 52. You get the idea.

How does this relate to addition and subtraction?

Check out the picture above. The question is “what is 3 + 2?”

To find the answer, you can start at three and count two more to get the answer, five. Counting on can help your child solve simple addition problems.

And subtraction? Take the problem 7 – 5. Start counting at five and go up to seven. How many times did you count? Yep, two. See how that works.

Hold on, hold on! If my kid has to count every time he has to add, he’ll never make it in the later grades. This is no good! (You may not be thinking this, but I guarantee you that some people are.)

Just remember that the kids using counting on just learned to count not too long ago.

This is an extension of counting and a link in the chain. Each link your child can master will lead to a strong chain of math skills.

It’s an introduction to the skills used in addition and subtraction. Chances are, you learned this too, you just didn’t know the formal term.

It’s simple. It’s basic. But, it’s powerful.

I’ve worked with kids who were falling behind in math in later grades and noticed that some of the kids who were struggling with addition and subtraction had never mastered counting on. We had to backtrack and work on that skill. Once they were more confident with counting on, their addition and subtraction skills improved. It really does help.

So, now we know that answer to the question: what is counting on? It’s so simple and so much fun to practice.

Fun Ways to Practice Counting On At Home

Counting On Card Game

Practice Counting On in Nature

10 Fun Ways to Practice Counting On

Apple Counting Rocks

10 Simple Ways to Practice Counting On at Better Than Homework

Have you caught all the Math Homework 101 posts? Click here to see all the previous posts all written to help you help your kids with their math homework.

Rainbow Color Hunt: A Tally Mark Scavenger Hunt

August 3, 2015 By Terri Thompson

We love scavenger hunts – really love scavenger hunts.

They’re fun, engaging, get you moving, and are a great way to sneak in some extra learning.

We recently spent a hot summer day on a rainbow color tally mark scavenger hunt throughout the house.

It was a great way to sneak in some math practice. We were looking for the colors of the rainbow and also practicing tally marks at the same time.

Sneak in math fun while you search for a rainbow of colors. This tally mark scavenger hunt is a great way to practice writing and counting tally marks.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details.

Perfect for inside or outside

This scavenger hunt can work both indoors and out, but we did discover that there are many more color choices inside.

You would definitely want to find a more colorful location (like a flower garden) if you plan on trying this scavenger hunt outside.

Go on a rainbow color tally mark scavenger hunt

The hunt is so easy and so much fun.

All you need is the Rainbow Color Hunt printable, a hard surface to write on, and a pencil.

Have your child hunt for all the colors of the rainbow. Each time that find a color, they need to make a tally mark on the sheet.

At the end of the hunt, total up all the tally marks to find out which color occurred most frequently.

To make sure there was an end point to this scavenger hunt, I set a timer for 15 minutes. Our goal was to find out how much color we could find in that time frame.

My girls worked together to find the colors and total up the tally marks. You could also give each child their own copy of the printable and let them compete against each other to see who found the most incidences of each color.

Are you ready to play? You can download and print the Rainbow Color Tally Mark Scavenger Hunt at the link below.

Download and print here –> Rainbow Color Hunt

More rainbow fun

Make simple egg carton rainbows. You probably have all the supplies you need at home.

Read a book about color! You’ll find great recommendations for books about all the colors of the rainbow.

Learn with Rainbow Writing. Practice spelling words or sight words with this fun activity.

Try some rainbow science. Visit Buggy & Buddy for a fun list of rainbow science activities.

Make this a family adventure

Cost: Free

Planning time: About 5 minutes. You need time to download and print the Rainbow Color Hunt sheet.

Ages: 5 and up. This works best with kids who have already learned about tally marks. You can pair up younger kids with an older sibling or adult if they can’t do tally marks on their own.

Time needed: 15 to 30 minutes.

Choose your location wisely! You don’t want everyone to get frustrated because they can’t find the different colors.

Math Activities for Kids