Shape Plate - Addition and Subtraction Stories

We have a new Draw More page for your students and children. They will draw what's on their plate! It's perfect for an art lesson, to integrate with counting stories in early math or in a farm-to-plate social studies or science unit!

They can draw from their personal experience, imagination and ideas!

Let's Eat by Ana Zamorano is a lovely high quality picture book to read to your students as an introduction to math concepts that can be explored during meal times and to get students thinking about what's on their plate. 

Topics you could explore after reading include:

• number words: seven, two, thousand, once, o'clock
• size: smallest, biggest
• position: between, left/right (knife/fork)
• days of the week
• counting: days of the week, clapping, counting tomatoes from the vine, 
• one more/one less (missing from the table, baby arrived)
• 1:1 correspondence: plates to match places, to match chairs
• counting by 2 (cutlery)
• counting by 3 (cutlery + plate)

Perhaps you have a play corner where students could role play some of the things they have talked about and set a little table.

As well as drawing on their activity page, your students can explore some math concepts as you tell little stories. They will practice attentive listening as well. 

Shapes on the Plate

• provide shape blocks
• tell some stories, students act them out
• e.g. Tonight I am having shapes for dinner. I have 2 shapes with 3 sides a blue shape and a square. How many shapes do I have on my plate? First I will eat the square. How many shapes do I have left?

Students slides shape on and off to model simple addition and subtraction.

You could also use the pea printables from our Math Pack!



Incorporate some trading for place value with a story that uses ones and tens. As ten ones are reached, students can trade for a ten. 

For example: Tonight I am having 3 peas, 4 carrots and 3 potatoes on my plate. As students place the one blocks down, they count-on (e.g. three, 4, 5, 6, 7 as the carrots go down) and trade for a ten. Continue adding food, perhaps encouraging members of the small group to suggest what next goes on the plate. After the game they can draw a math picture and label their sets of food!

Find this drawing activity page over at TpT and have fun with numbers today!