Learning Activities for Kids

Pick Two – A Fun LEGO Math Game

January 14, 2016 By Terri Thompson

My daughters’ school decided that this month was Math Facts Month. They’ve challenged all the kids to practice math, either fact families or math skills, each night.

They didn’t send home worksheets, flash cards, or any sort of manipulative. They just sent home a simple sheet of ideas and told us to have fun.

So, I took one of my girls’ current obsession, tossed it together with a little bit of math, and came up with a fun way to practice, Pick Two: LEGO Math Game.

Practice addition, subtraction, or multiplication with this easy LEGO math game for kids. #math #LEGO #education #CreativeFamilyFun

What happens when you combine LEGOs with math? Well, at my house, you end up with a kid who is eager to do as much math as possible. True story.

Maybe this Math Facts Month will be a breeze.

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

Grab your LEGO bricks and practice addition with this fun hands-on LEGO math game for early elementary kids. It's such a fun way to do math.

Set up your activity

The set-up for this LEGO math game couldn’t be easier. Just grab a container and fill it with LEGO pieces. Try to find a variety of blocks of different shapes and sizes. I only used the basic bricks because the specialty pieces won’t really work well with this game.

I also grabbed a big base plate to give my daughter a place to organize her bricks.

The only other supplies we needed were a pencil and a piece of paper.

Play the game

The game itself is very simple.

My daughter would close her eyes and grab two LEGO bricks from the bucket. She then wrote out an addition problem for the set she pulled out using the bumps on the each brick.

(By the way, is there a technical term for the bumps on a LEGO? I have no idea!)

For instance, if she pulled out a brick with 4 bumps and one with 8 bumps, she wrote the equation 8 + 4 =?. She then figured out the answer.

Many times she had to count the total number of bumps to get her answer. That’s okay, it’s all a part of learning to do addition.

The best part about this game is that it’s easily adaptable.

Try one of these other versions of this LEGO math game:

Create subtraction problems with your two bricks.

Pull two bricks and multiply the amount of bumps on each brick.

Practice greater than, lesser than, or equal to with your bricks

Your preschooler can decide which brick has the most amount of bumps or the least amount of bumps.

Have your preschooler count the total number of bumps on the two bricks s/he pulls out of the bin.

Grab three or more bricks and add them all together.

Grab four or more bricks and put them in order of largest to smallest, or vice versa.

Thank goodness for LEGO. Math Facts Month is going to be a breeze.

For more fun LEGO ideas, check out these other fun posts from the Early Elementary Blogging Team:

LEGO Classification – Printable Diagrams from Life Over C’s

LEGO number line for Addition and Subtraction from In The Playroom

Hands-On Synonym Blocks Matching Game from Raising Little Superhereos

Spelling With LEGOS! from Preschool Powol Packets

LEGO Boat Engineering Challenge from Handmade Kids Art

Using LEGO to find Syllables from Rainy Day Mum

Area and Perimeter with Lego Duplos from School Time Snippets

Plural Nouns with LEGO from Still Playing School

Combinations of Ten Using Lego Figures from Lemon Lime Adventures

How to do an Lego Engineering Project for Kindergarten, First, or Second Grade from Thriving STEM

Estimating and Probability with LEGO from Planet Smarty Pants

Lego Bar Graphs for First Grade from Look We’re Learning

LEGO Irregular Verb Matching Activity for Second Grade from Sugar Aunts

Exploring Symmetry with a Lego Firefly from Crafty Kids at Home

LEGO Learning Ideas for your kindergartners, first, and second graders.

Top 10 Posts of 2015

December 30, 2015 By Terri Thompson

Every year, I look back to see what my most viewed posts were. What did you like the best? This past year, many of my popular posts were fun learning activities for grade-schoolers. They were also some of the projects we had the most fun with.

Are you ready to count them down? You’ll love all of these posts!

10. Gratitude Conversation Starters – I think a lot about gratitude in November and December and I want my kids to think about it too. I created these printable gratitude conversation starters to help us start talking about gratitude as a family. They’re perfect for Thanksgiving or Christmas time.

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9. Math Fact Islands – My oldest daughter refuses to practice math facts with flash cards at home. That’s okay… they’re really not that much fun! I’ve been trying very hard to make math fact practice fun at home, so I came up with Math Fact Islands. She can move and learn at the same time! It’s a versatile game about you can use it for addition, subtraction, or multiplication facts.

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8. Dear Teacher: There Are a Few Things I Need You To Know – Teachers are busy, and I never have enough time to talk to them about my daughters as much as I want to. This post is everything I wish I was able to tell my girls’ teachers each and every year.

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7. Project: Around the World – In the beginning of 2015, we started an ambitious project. We were going to create an art project inspired by every country in the world. We started alphabetically and slowly made our way through all the “A” countries. We took a break over the holidays and we’re ready to start back up again after the first of the year.

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6. Melting Crayons Science Experiment – Will crayons melt in the sun? We set out to find out and turned it into a fun science project. Try it yourself on a sunny day and print out the My Science Experiment printable sheet to guide your experiment.

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5. Number Line Secret Code – This project took a little while to set up, but the results were worth it. My girls loved practicing their math skills to solve the secret message. They asked for it again and again. This was definitely a win-win project at our house!

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4. Library Scavenger Hunt – I know a lot of kids are like mine and don’t want to get out of their comfort zone when it comes to reading. I wanted to encourage my girls to read new genres, but I wanted to make it fun too so I came up with this Library Scavenger Hunt. I’ve got two versions, one for picture books and one for chapter books. You can get both printable scavenger hunts at the link below.

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3. Plus 1, Minus 1: An Easy Math Card Game – Sometimes the best activities are the easiest. This fun card game is perfect for any kid practicing their plus 1 or minus 1 math facts. My daughter had a ton of fun playing it and I loved that the only thing I needed was a deck of cards.

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2. Driveway Hundred Chart – This is another entry in the “math doesn’t have to be boring” category. My kindergartner was doing a lot of work with hundred charts in school and I wanted to reinforce the learning at home. So one day, I went outside and drew a huge hundred chart on our driveway! It was so much fun! Check out this post for all the fun games you can play with a Driveway Hundred Chart.

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1. Classroom Treats for Holiday Parties – According to page views, I’m not the only one who’s every struggled with coming up with fun ideas for classroom treats. It’s especially hard when your school has a “store-bought treats only” policy. I went searching and found some fun ideas that would be perfect for a classroom holiday party.

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DIY Sight Word Memory Game

November 4, 2015 By Terri Thompson

Practice sight words with this simple sight word memory game. It's easy to make and can be personalized for any set of sight words.

My 1st grade daughter has been working hard at reading. That means I’ve been working hard right along with her. She still has some areas where she stumbles and one of those areas is sight words. I took note of some of the words she was struggling with recently and made a simple sight word memory game.

This game is completely customizable and only takes about 10 minutes to make. What could be easier?

Let’s get started!

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Supplies Needed

Colored card stock

Ruler

Pencil

Scissors

Markers

To Make the Game: Use your ruler to create a grid on your card stock. I made squares that were 2 inches by 2 inches. This size was perfect for a game, plus I was able to get 20 squares per sheet of card stock with little waste. Once you have your grid, cut out all of your squares. I found that 20 squares was the perfect amount for the game.

Decide on your words. I chose 10 words that my daughter needed to work on. I selected from words that were on a take-home sheet from her teacher along with a few that she had been struggling with while we read together. I used a marker to write the words on the card stock squares. You’ll want two copies of each word, so I needed 20 squares for my 10 words.

Special Note: Use your kid’s washable markers to write the words. Permanent markers, like Sharpies, will bleed through the card stock and
you’ll be able to see the word through the back side. I learned that the combination of colored card stock plus washable marker will insure that you won’t be able to see the words when the game pieces are upside down.

To play the game: Mix up your cards and turn them all upside down. Player one turns over two cards. If they match, player 1 keeps the cards and plays again. If they don’t match, turn the cards back over and it’s player 2’s turn. Keep playing until all the matches are made.

The rules are identical to the rules of the classic Memory game. Your child can focus on having fun and reviewing sight words without having to learn new game play rules.

My daughter had a blast playing and so did I. It really is a fun way to practice sight words and a great way to connect with your kids after school.

Math Homework 101: Name-Collection Box

October 27, 2015 By Terri Thompson

Has your child ever brought home homework with a name-collection box?

Did you break out in a sweat thinking “I’ve never seen one of these before? How on earth am I going to help with this?”

No? That was just me?

My daughter brought home a few of these before I actually figured out what it was. Luckily, she knew what she was doing and didn’t need my help. Whew!

In fact, it took my then 6-year-old to explain it to me before I figured it out. Now it’s time for me to pass on my knowledge to you.

What is a name-collection box? Find out the details behind this elementary math tool and also learn some fun ways you can use it at home.

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

I don’t know how widespread the idea of a name-collection box is. It’s part of the Everyday Math Curriculum and I’ve seen them come up in 1st grade and 2nd grade for my daughters. I’m not entirely sure if other curriculum use it. If they don’t, I think they should! Once I started looking at these, I realized a few things.

Number 1: I like these because they add a bit of creativity to math. It’s like a mini brainstorming session.

Number 2: It’s a great illustration of the many, many ways you can use math to describe a number.

And Number 3: It’s kind of fun.

What is a name-collection box?

Let’s get started. I snapped a picture of one of the name-collection boxes I found in my daughter’s 1st Grade Everyday Math workbook.

Often the question asked is “Write other names for ___.” The number in question is always written in the small square in the upper corner.

You may also see another version where it asked the student to cross out the names that don’t belong in the ___ – box. The box will be filled out completely and your child has to cross out all the things that don’t equal the number in the box.

The concept is really easy once you get the hang of it.

So, what do you include in a name-collection box?

The only wrong answer is something that does not equal the number in the corner.

In the example above, I used tally marks, addition problems, subtraction problems, drew a base 10 block, and wrote the number word.

Other options are drawing money, drawing a domino, or writing an addition problem with more than 2 numbers.

As your child learns more, there will be more options to put in the box. You could even use multiplication and division problems if your child has reached that point!

How can you have fun with this at home?

Take it outside and draw a name-collection box on the driveway.

Make a 3-D name-collection box in a shoe box.

Get out the colored markers and decorate the box and write all your answers in multiple colors!

I created a simple, printable name-collection box you can use at home. Print it out and work through one of these together with your child. That way you can gain an understanding together. Your child will feel more successful and you will gain confidence with their math homework.

My daughter wrote down some examples for you for the number 12. I just noticed that she got the tally marks wrong. Oops! Luckily, I know she has a good understanding of tally marks so I’ll just chalk that one up to a “in a hurry” mistake.

Download and print your Name-Collection Box here.

Other Fun Name-Collection Box Activities

If you’d like to do more activities related to the name-collection box, JDaniel4’s Mom has a great post with fall-themed Exploring a Number printable worksheets. It’s a nice break down which can help guide a child that’s having troubles understanding the name-collection box.

Math Geek Mama took this idea and added a Thanksgiving twist. Check out her Build a Turkey Number Sense Activity. She’s even got free printables to help you out.

Spider Skip Counting Puzzles

October 8, 2015 By Terri Thompson

We’ve talked about skip counting before, about why it’s so important and why it’s emphasized so much in schools. It sets the stage for other math concepts, specifically multiplication. Mastering skip counting will benefit your child so much. You can read all about skip counting here at Math Homework 101.

Luckily, skip counting can actually be quite fun and there are so many hands-on and active ways to practice. Today, I’m so thrilled to get to share with you these fun and fantastic spider skip counting puzzles.

Practice skip counting with these fun free printable spider skip counting puzzles. Fun for Halloween and anytime of the year.

My lovely friend Kim at Life Over C’s is the creator of these puzzles and she is so generously letting me share them here in my space.

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

What is a skip counting puzzle?

My girls have always been a fan of this type of puzzle.

When they were younger, I would search all over to find this type of puzzle to print. It was just one of the tools I used when they were learning to count.

Luckily this format lends itself so well to skip counting and we can continue to use them as they get older.

How to use your spider skip counting puzzles

This spider themed pack contains 5 different skip counting puzzles. You’ll find counting by 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, 5’s, and 6’s.

All you need to do is print them out and cut the pieces. It’s so simple.

Mix up the pieces and let your kids use skip counting to put the puzzles together.

Click here to download and print your Spider Skip Counting Puzzles.

Thanks again to Kim at Life Over C’s for sharing this with us!

You can find all of Kim’s awesome printables here at the Life Over C’s Store. Also, make sure to stop by and check out her spider themed puzzles for double digit addition that go along with these skip counting puzzles.

If you are looking for more Spider-Themed Activities, the 2nd grade blogging team has got you covered! Check out these awesome spider activities!

Spider Themed Puzzles for Double Digit Addition from Life Over C’s
Do some Spider Web Skip Counting from Rainy Day Mum
Spider Multiplication from Still Playing School
Almost Doubles Spider Addition from Sugar Aunts
Spider Lap Book from Preschool Powol Packets
Spider Web Noun Sort & Printable from School Time Snippets
Learning with Art: Tape Resist Spider Web from Crafty Kids at Home
Learning with Spider Webs from Planet Smarty Pants

Learning Activities for Kids