Subtraction in the Garden

When you introduce subtraction to your students you will first teach them that it is the removal of part of a group. Your early activities will perhaps be focused on taking objects away from a collection. 

Help your students to demonstrate taking away by using our action rhyme 10 Happy Flowers to first create an experience from which you can discuss subtraction in your follow up lessons.

Here is a minimal equipment, no-prep game to also help your students act out subtraction in a hands-on, concrete way. 

Flower Garden Subtraction Game

You need:

• counters
• dice
• green paper (optional)

To play:

• students play in pairs
• place each have their own small collection of counters in the garden (green paper) - e.g. 15 counters
• players take turns to roll and take flowers from their own garden, each having 3 turns
• at the end of play, the students with the least number of flowers left in their garden is the winner
• regularly ask students to tell you about their flower garden - how many they are taking and how many are left etc

Here a student has rolled a 4 and removed it from their garden of 10.

On their second roll, he rolls a 1 and removes this from the garden. Perhaps you could ask how many have now been removed and how many flowers are left.

On the third and final roll the student rolls a two, takes them aways and has a remainder of 3.

Here students in the pair will compare their final group and determine the winner. 

Subtraction as comparing or difference

After your students are confident with subtraction as take away, you will move on to subtraction by comparison or difference perhaps. 1 less than is a great strategy to teach here too. 

In the premium coloring club today we have a one page activity where students can find 2 flowers that differ by one and link them. Before you attempt this page:

• review 1 less than
• teach difference/comparison subtraction
• review a number line and look at before/after numbers
• support by modeling with some subtraction stories
• model how to find 2 numbers that differ by 1

Find more ideas to integrate with these subtraction activities over on the website!

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Finger Play, Subtraction

Math Craft for Numbers

When your students are confident with counting to 10 and writing numbers celebrate by having them make a big happy number flower craft! 

Display them all and create a class number garden!

Students color one of the templates pieces or paint them, cut and glue!

Choose from the:

• complete version (minimal cutting, no gluing)
• one page version (all pieces one student needs on one page)
• traditional template version - you can copy on colored paper each different section

Integrate this math activity with our free action rhyme finger play: 10 Happy Flowers! to incorporate reading, language and literacy!

We've provided many variations to give you a big range of teaching opportunities.

• face and numbers included
• no face (students draw their own or don't have one)
• no numbers (students can write their own numbers)

Because of the multiple variations, you can become creative and make alternative flowers - for example:

• a flip flap flower (glue a numbered flower on an unnumbered and draw dots under each petal flip flap)
• create a multiplication flower with the unnumbered version
• make an odd/even flower by coloring the petals in alternate colors

We hope your learners love making their flower and your classroom is blooming with math fun! 

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math craft, numbers to ten

Fast Alphabet Activities

As your students are becoming more confident with the letter sounds of the alphabet it is a good idea to gradually go back through them and regularly review them. Check to see students can say the letter name, letter sound and write with correct formation. 

In the minutes between lessons and over transitions you have time for a fast, no-prep letter brain break!  

We have a set of prompt sticks that can be used to help you focus students and add engagement. 

Once you have prepared the set of alphabet sticks, pop them in a little container and let a student choose one. Combine it with one of the 12 suggested mini activities or think of one on your own! 

The 12 suggested activities are, fast and easy to prep:

• air write the focus letter
• palm write the focus letter
• surface write the focus letter
• rainbow write
• brainstorm a list of words with the class
• brainstorm names of people
• brainstorm animals
• say the alphabet and stop at the letter
• draw a picture of something that begins with the letter
• make the shape of the letter with classroom equipment
• find something in the classroom that begins with the letter
• turn and talk with a friend and think of words with the letter

Take a peek at this printable resource over in our store!

You may also like the matching coloring pages we have over in the Premium Pond Coloring club!

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Alphabet

Sweet Sundae Craft

 In the craft library of our Pond Coloring Club premium library today we added a super sweet sundae craft! It would be perfect for your little learners when they are leanring the letter sound s. 

Perhaps ask them to:

• draw some spots
• draw some swirls
• make a spoon from their scraps 

It has nice clear lines to cut for your youngest learners and everything is on one page for each student. 

If you need more activities for the letter s you may like our Let's Learn the Alphabet pack full or resources, activities and worksheets!

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Alphabet, Craft for Kids

Activities for a Number Chart

 Do you have a hundred chart on display in your classroom? Despite being a great reference for students you can also implement lots of fun counting and number activities with minimal prep to encourage foundations skills in math. 

We have some chart printables to help you:

• number house 120
• number house 200
• number house 101 to 200
• plain 100 and 120 chart
• free student page size charts
• skip counting chart

Here are some no-prep activity ideas for using a hundred chart (or similar):

• count forwards and backwards, pointing to each number
• count starting from various starting positions
• cover a number with a sticky note and tell students to provide a clue for the number without saying the number (e.g. it comes after 9)
• cover multiple numbers with sticky notes and ask students to write down the missing numbers
• read a sequence of numbers to students (they may record on their own student chart), ask them to discover the pattern and tell you the next number - e.g. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 ... 
• provide clues for a number and students guess the number, using the chart as reference
• ask students to investigate the difference between numbers along a diagonal
• ask how many numbers in each row
• ask how many numbers in each column 
• find the total of each row
• find the total of each column 
• ask students to write down every second number
• Ask students to record any block of 4 numbers and find the total - e.g. 4, 5, 6, 7. After doing this several times what can they discover? 
• Ask students to add 3 adjoining numbers from any row - e.g. 11, 12, 13. Multiply the middle number by 3. What do they notice?

I'd love you to tell me your favorite games or activities for a number chart and include them in the next blog post to share with other teachers. 

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hundred chart, Math Lesson

Little Snail Digital Stickers

We have a new set of digital stickers for your little learners to love!

Reward your students best efforts in the classroom or virtual learning space with these cuties!

They're ready for you in the store!

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Classroom Management, snails, stickers

Fat Cat on a Mat

A new directed drawing pack is in our store - Fat Cat! It is great for integrating into your word family or early reading lessons. I counted no less than 7 early literacy books on my shelf that include a fat cat this week and of course most have him sitting on a mat with a hat. Perhaps your little learners can add those extra details to their work!

Your children can follow the steps and draw on the printable writing papers provided in the file or give them giant art paper like I did when working with some little learners recently.



Drawing is a great catalyst for writing as you can see below!




Have fun with fat cat! You may also like:

• more of our directed drawings
• word family rhyming cards
• free at word family worksheet

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Directed Drawing, Word Families

A Rectangle Pond

Here is a no prep number game to challenge your little learners! 

Tell them to make ponds for the frogs - rectangle ponds! 

They need to line up lily pads (dominos)  in a rectangle for the frogs to sit on. There must be the same number of frogs (dots) on each side of the pond (rectangle).

Perhaps play as a whole class as your lesson introduction or warm up to model strategies and problem solving skills for your learners:

• how to make one side
• how to find the total of one side
• how to experiment with different combinations
• how to check and change dominos to create a matching total
• how to compensate or split numbers to achieve a total 

You need:

double 6 domino set

To play

• students work in pairs or independently to arrange dominos in a rectangle making sure each side has the same total

Here you can see a pond with sides of 8.



Here a pond with sides of 6 has been created.


And here a pond with sides of 7 has been formed. Challenge your students to check each others' work and assist in making corrections. 

We hope your learners love this fun no-prep game. If you're looking for more ideas we can help:

• frog themed activities
• addition activities
• frog math games for numbers to 10

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Addition, frogs

Making Words with froggy

If you have our Frog Match cvc word puzzles - we just gave you an extra 100 words! This printable now includes a huge range of additional words for your students to make. 

We can also recommend printing and making a small selection of the cards to make it more manageable for you. Perhaps a set of just 30-50 words to make will be perfect for your small group activity. 

Your learners will join the frogs to lily pads to make and read cvc words in this engaging puzzle activity game! Your students will join onset and rime to make words - both real and nonsense, gaining valuable word skills while having fun!

In addition to making and reading words as they join the puzzles, here are 3 additional learning activities you can provide your students. 

Sort real and nonsense words

• ask students to make words by joining a frog to a lilypad
• provide a real and nonsense title - a sticky note will work just fine
• ask students to sort their words into the two categories

Rhyming Words

• students make words and find another to create a rhyming pair

Build a Word Family

• ask students to write a bank of words in the same word family for a chosen frog-lilypad combination

og Word Family Craft

To celebrate the newly revised file, I have made your sweet learners a fun quick craft too! It's over in the free library of our Pond Coloring Club ready for you!

With one big clear line to cut they can practice scissor skills after painting, coloring and writing a bank of words that rhyme with frog! 



We hope you and your learners have fun with froggy! 

Find more of our Quick Crafts here!

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Craft for Kids, cvc words, frogs

Along the Street

I've been sharing some ideas with you over the last few weeks for math that have a house or home theme. Have you read Little Houses A Counting Book by Helen Musselwhite?  

One of you let me know over on Instagram on Sunday that you were teaching position in math this week and I thought of this book right away. Not only does it have lots of things to count but it provides beautiful detailed pictures to talk about! 

There are little houses from all over the world in this book featured on pages from 1 to 10. With no written text it is perfect for guiding your learners through a math talk - either on numbers or positional language - or both!

If you have not set yet up a routine for picture talks it is something I highly recommend. A rich and meaningful lesson can be implemented in seconds with just a picture or scene from a book. To help your most reluctant contributors, provide them a model for how to contribute. Something as simple as

• pointing to one part of the picture - e.g. a duck
• describing it using a full sentence - e.g. Here is a duck.
• providing one detail - e.g. Here is a duck on the stairs. 

This simple structure will give your youngest learners the confidence to know how to contribute to a class talk. They are simply describing what they see. Let them point to what they want to talk about. This will help them link their language to something concrete and provide needed support. As they watch other students talk, perhaps with deeper insight they may grow in confidence and skill to share more.

Let students freely share and encourage positional language in your picture talk.

Positional language to encourage while looking at the pictures

above, across, along, around, after, back, before, behind, below, between, center, close, down, far, first, further, further away, here, in front of, on top of, outside, over, past, right, side, side by side, there, through, top, under, underneath, up, upside down

How do you encourage this? As an example, a student may say There is a bike under the tree. You could say back Yes there is one bike under the tree and there is another bike behind it, between the two trees.

As well as a structured picture talk for encouraging positional language, here are some more ideas to implement alongside a reading of this book!

Turn It

• play outside or in a wide open space
• children pretend they are cars on the street
• teacher blows a whistle and students make a left turn
• as the teacher shakes a tambourine quickly, students walk in the direction they are facing
• as the teacher shakes a tambourine slowly, students walk backwards
• a tap of the tambourine signals for students to stop
• mix the 3 sounds and let students participate in movement of turn and direction

The Street

• use play equipment, toys and figurines to make a street like the ones in the text
• have students talk to one another about the position of various features

Draw a Street

Today in the Premium Coloring Club we have a page where students can draw a street scene. Encourage them to talk about it too. 

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Books, math talk

Gumball Halves

Combine your lessons on number with craft and creativity with our math crafts. They are the perfect way to close off a unit of work and letting students be creative to celebrate their learning.

This one is a gumball machine to show two halves of a group. 

Students will color or paint the gumballs in 2 colors and record a math sentence.

Students color the templates pieces or paint them, cut and glue!


Multiple options are included:

• complete page - like a coloring page with minimal cutting 
• one page - all pieces for one student on one page
• template - larger size and multiple pieces may be on one sheet of paper for more than one student - great for when copying on colored paper

Find more ideas for Valentine's Day here
Find more math crafts here

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math craft, Valentines Day

Math Picture Book for Doubles

Two of Everything by Lily Toy Hong is a picture book that is perfect to read when you are talking about doubles in math! 

It is a Chinese folktale that features a magical pot that doubles everything that is put inside it!

 
After reading you could play a hands-on game where students roll a dice and put a number of counters into a container and then pull out double!

You need:

• a container - perhaps one that looks like a cauldron or big pot
• math counters
• dice - use a number to suit your learners, 6, 12 0r 20 sided dice for example

To play

• fill the container with counters so there are plenty inside ready to play
• put some counters outside the container too 
• show students how to roll a die and take the matching number of counters - e.g. 4
• place the counters inside the container
• model for students some strategies to find the double of the number rolled if needed e.g. knowing double 4 is 8 as a fact, counting on from 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, using a number line or making 2 equal towers using connecting cube equipment
• pull out counters to show the double - e.g. 8
• model mathematical language - double 4 is 8, 4 and 4 more is 8, 4 add 4 is 8
• model for students how to record this with pictures of numbers on your class chart paper or board
• let all students have a turn in whole group or as a partner play game

The text is on the lengthier side - perfect for first and second grade. I have read it to kindergarten before, but improvised on the text as I read, making the language and length more manageable for them.

Find more ideas for doubles:

• math pack
• another math pack
• free coloring page in club - look in math library

 

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Addition, Books

Doubling and Halving

I have another idea for you to engage your students in an addition game using the game mats from 10 in the House in an alternative way.

10 in the House is a game for learning the 'make 10' addition strategy. It's in our store ready for you to print!

Here on the blog I want to share with you some ideas for using the mats for doubling and halving. 

Level 3 - students who are able to mentally add

• play in pairs
• take turns rolling an 18 sided dice (or use a 20 sided dice and if roll 19-20, roll again)
• a player chooses to double or halve the number they rolled and cover it with a counter on their game mat

Level 2 - students who need visual support to learn double facts

• play as above
• instead of rolling a dice, match a dot pattern card to a numeral card
• students can 'count on' if needed, from the numeral, using the dots for support
• ask students to record the double and total on a whiteboard
• for the dot pattern tiles, use a second print of one of the game mats provided.

Level 1 - for students just becoming familiar with doubles

• play as above
• match dot pattern to dot pattern
• students can count all dots if needed
• students will notice that a double is 2 sets of the same number, reinforcing the concept

I hope you love these hands-on ways to get more value and differentiated learning opportunities from this resource!

Find 10 in the House in our store.

Find more for numbers in the Little Number House Bundle

Your students will love our free On the door counting action rhyme to complement these activities!

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Home with Snail Art Project

If you have our bundle of fun directed drawings - I just added a new one for you! Home with Snail will help your students create with imagination and spark some writing ideas!

The pack includes 4 project options:

• classic directed drawing
• big draw
• draw and write OR
• Read-Draw-Write

Writing ideas:

Ask students to write/draw:

• a story about where snail is going
• a map showing where snail has been
• a description of the inside of snail's shell home
• a list of items that are inside snail's home

We hope your students enjoy this new project! 

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Art Ideas for Kids, Directed Drawing