Get some dice and drawing paper ready, I have a new math warm up idea for you that your students will love. They will have plenty of practice subitizing dot patterns as they order numbers 1-5.
After the math warm up they can paint or color to create an art project for display.
Roll and Spider Math Drawing Warm Up or Activity
Have students roll a dice to draw. They draw in order from 1 to 5 so must roll a one to start, adding each new detail to the spider picture as the correct number is rolled.
draw a body
draw 2 eyes
draw a mouth and 2 teeth/fangs
draw 4 legs on each side
draw some spider silk
draw a hexagon shaped web
After completing the rolls and having the basic picture drawn, your students can add extra detail - finishing the web and adding colors.
I hope your students love math and numbers a little more today after rolling a spider! Be sure to check the Math Warm Ups page on my website for more ideas and support.
It's always great when resources in your classroom can be used in more than one way. Here are a few ways to use the banner pieces in my new Sweetly Spooky classroom banner for other activities.
Have your banner in a position where students can clip the pieces on and off (great for fine motor) and incorporate the pieces into your learning activities, brain breaks and overall program.
Other ways to use classroom banner pieces
door and wall display accents
on a word wall along with word cards to help teach spelling or voculary
bulletin board pictures
tape to a pencil or stick for puppet play
laminate and add to a basket at a writing center - students can play with them and create a story to write
use them in language and math warm ups and transitions
Math Warm Up Idea - Halloween Line Up
as well as math this is a language and listening game perfect for transition times and brain breaks
have your banner positioned so students can clip the pictures on and off
review ordinal language
give a selected student an instruction to follow - e.g. get the 4th picture, find the 8th picture, get the last picture, get the picture 3rd from the end
students follow the instruction, get the picture and bring it to add to a collection
pause the game and review the pictures left on the line and their new position (e.g. the owl was second and is now first)
encourage lots of ordinal and positional math talk and listening
If you have the Math Kit bundle, you'll find some new Echidna Counting Cards for engaging your children number games, activities and warm ups! The set includes 6 different colors and you can use them with craft sticks or a dry erase pen.
Here is a Math Warm Up you can play to help your students with early subtraction concepts - difference, counting backwards or counting up.
And another for becoming familiar with subtraction stories:
Echidna Spikes
students each have an echidna and access to sticks
tell a subtraction story and have them model it: Echidna has 6 spikes. Dingo chased him and during his run to the burrow he lost 4 of them. How many spikes does echidna have left?
students can model this using the sticks
children new to math stories may need to hear it several times
this warm up presents an ideal tome to read Wombat Stew
I hope you have fun in math today!
If you are working on subtraction with your kindergarten or first grade class you may also like:
Art projects, both independent and collaborative can help your build and foster classroom community. As they work creatively, display their work and view the work of their peers, you are providing a range of opportunities for students to talk and communicate, developing a sense of belonging and connection to their class.
Kindergarten and other young students may only be just learning to draw and make marks on a page. Scribble drawings are perfect - a picture emerges quickly which is engaging and confidence boosting!
Today I'd love to share with you how to scribble draw some carrots. They can be happy carrots, creepy carrots or crazy carrots! Perhaps a carrot patch.
Here are the simple steps:
Encourage your students to
draw a giant carrot and cut it out for a classroom banner
draw lots of carrots on a page an give each a different face
draw details and more scribble pictures in the background - clouds, webs or patterns
I hope your children have lots of fun scribbling carrots to help develop their drawing and creativity!
I have some ideas for you to consider using as extra learning opportunities when using my happy number coloring pages!
On each page your children can trace the big number and color the clouds and flowers to match. They can also:
trace the number multiple times and multiple colors to create a rainbow effect (rainbow writing)
flip the page and write more numerals on the back
Here are some more number-specific ideas:
Number 5 Page
fingerprint 5 clouds around the number 5
ask students to flip their page over and trace their hand
they can number each finger on their drawing from one to five and decorate with face etc too
Number 4 Page
use a dice that shows numbers 1-3 only (I have a printable 1-3 dice in the Premium Coloring Club)
roll a number
have students clap the difference to 4 - for example, you roll a 2, they clap and say three, four
Number 3 Page
play a listening game, asking students to close their eyes and open them only when they hear 3
make some quick-clapping patterns of 1-5 for students to listen to
instead of clapping, you could use percussion instruments
Number 2 Page
during your daily read-aloud, shared-reading, collaborative-reading or story time, ask students to keep a close look at the illustrations and look for things that come in 2's
encourage them to share what they see and at the end of the book, to think of some more
record them on a class chart for display on your math wall
Number 1 Page
learn a rhyming text or poem that has a focus on 1 - e.g. Incy Wincy Spider
talk about their being one spider, one sun, one web and one drain pipe
let students create actions for each part of the rhyme as they say it
Challenge your students to quickly add 10 more onto a number they roll in a fast number warm up for your small group at math. Math warm ups are a great management tool for beginning your lesson and reviewing previously taught content.
To complement this math warm up guide students through some math activities for place value, helping them build confidence in understanding how tens and one combine for 2 digit numbers.
The cards from the Math Kt can be used for a myriad of games and activities. Cut a set to keep in vertical number strips for activities like this one:
Writing Numbers Before and After
Students:
place a number strip on their whiteboard
write the number before and after using a marker
challenge them to complete 5 cards for a number warm up
after each is complete they can trade boards with a friend, remove the card and write the missing numbers on their friend's board
Extension Challenge
At the conclusion of your time at the small group learning table you can give your students a card from the set and have them build it from place value blocks. Ask them to compare their number to another on the table and identify how many tens and ones are in ten difference.
I love sharing ideas with you for easy-prep math warm ups and activities. The printable scaffolds and supports in my Math Kit can help you make learning fun and engaging at your small group math table or in math activity groups! You can find out more about the kit over in my store.
The Rainbow Numbers coloring page is a favorite! It features numbers to ten to count, trace and order. It reinforces the combinations that make 10 too - 9+1, 8+2, 7+3, 6+4 and 5+5.
You can further support your students learning of numbers to 10 and early addition with a wall poster! It will provide essential reference of some content you've already taught and contribute to your classroom decor too.
These wall posters are available in my TPT store and are provided in image-file format - you have them printed at a print shop.
Along with the Rainbow Ten poster I've shared with you a days of the week and months of the year poster as a bonus! They coordinate nicely with the numbers and alphabet posters too.
If you're looking for more ways to make math fun in your classroom, you may like:
If your children loved making a winter bird I have an autumn bird for them too! Once traced and decorated they make a lovely addition to your fall classroom decor and bulletin board displays.
The little bird is carrying a leaf and has an acorn hat! Your children can:
trace in marker or crayon
add pattern lines to the hat
draw a wing or a feather pattern
add paint or chalk pastel to their tracings
Here is a math warm up to play while you wait for the paint to dry!
Rolling Leaves Math Warm Up
students sit in a circle
have one student roll a giant dice (6, 12 or 20 sided) across the circle to another student
the dice is a 'leaf' in the breeze and is rolling gently
the other student calls the number before rolling it on
the aim is to keep it fast paced to give lots of opportunities to recongize numbers
Extensions:
have students call the number before or after
have students double the number
have students add 5 or 10 to the number
Find the Autumn Bird tracing page in the free library of my Pond Coloring Club!
If your children enjoy creative craft activities and my coloring pages extend their learning by integrating some math and literacy based games and activities as part of your lessons or in the days before and after you complete them.
Here are just a few - they're perfect for when you're teaching numbers to 5 (with a focus on number 3) but can be adapted for other work too.
Writing Number 3
using our Number 3 coloring page have your children trace the big number 3, draw 3 clouds, color 3 flowers
as they write number 3 you can help them learn the rhyme - jump, jump, like a big B, that's how we write a number 3
Drawing / Writing Pattern Lines
on big paper teach your children 3 different pattern lines for developing stronger handwriting skills
let them do big strokes using marker or crayon from left to write across the page - they could chalk on the ground too
straight lines, zig zags, waves, jumps, hops and loops are good first patterns
after practicing big patterns they can incorporate 3 different patterns into a paper craft - like our Apple Bowl craft
Apples in 3
explore making a group of 3 and equal groups of 3
play in a small group - for example in a math warm up at your small-group table
play with yellow, green and red counters
students take turns to roll a standard 6 sided die, collecting the matching number of counters (in any color)
the aim is to make a perfect set of 3 or some equal-groups of 3
for example, if a student rolls a two and then a one on his next roll, he has made a 3 and wins
if a students rolls a 2, then a 5 (now 7), then a 2 - he wins as he has made 3 groups of 3 totalling 9
show students how to make groups of 3 as they continue through the game
if you have made the apple craft and have them on display you can reinforce the idea of a set/group including 3
3 Leaves Pattern Game
this is a listening game and perfect for a brain break or warm up
tell your children a color pattern (if it's the first time playing a game like this you may like to draw it or write it with symbols on chart paper to support your students listening)
e.g. yellow, orange, red, yellow, orange, red, yellow, orange, red
repeat the verbal pattern several times giving your stduents opportunity to remember it
have the class join you and say the pattern together or by asking students seated in a circle to say the next color in the pattern order
increase the complexity - e.g. yellow, yellow, red, orange, orange, yellow, yellow, red, orange, orange, yellow, yellow, red, orange, orange
Drawing or Making with 3 Shapes
give your students 3 pattern shape blocks or show them how to draw 3 shapes - e.g. circle, pentagon, oval
challenge them to do a drawing with just these shapes or cut them out and create something - e.g. what could you draw with rectangles ,triangles and squares
I hope these ideas help you use creative activities more confidently in your classroom knowing they can support essential work in math and literacy too!
Cute Piggy is one of most treasured drawing projects. I'd love to share the steps with again with you! Your students can draw it as part of learning in a farm unit of work or to ignite some ideas for writing.
This whimsical drawing is ideal for kindergarten - it requires some big round shapes, straight lines and some loops! Encourage your students to be creative as they draw - to make personal choices and add lots of detail and additional drawings in the background.
You can follow the steps here:
Over in my TPT store you'll find some writing papers and printable steps too.
Here is a coloring page from our club that helps students with numbers to ten! They can:
color the rainbow
trace the numerals 0-10
write the numerals 0-10
draw dots in the clod for each number 1-10
read the number words
write on the number track
After they have finished their page:
have a talk about their work
ask them to count for you and point to the numbers as they say them
play a math game - here is one for you:
Numbers on the Track
cover all the numbers on the number track at the base of the page
roll a ten sided dice
remove the matching counter
here students will be using their knowlesdge of the order and position of numbers to find the counter to remove
students in a small group can take turns to roll, the winner being the student to first remove all their counters
if you're not yet in the Pond Coloring Club - I'd love to have you with me so I can share with you, more creative ways to engage your students and help them learn.
Display some bright happy bowls of popcorn in your learning space by having your children scribble draw a bowl of popcorn. They can do this on big art paper or use the drawing/craft template I'm sharing with you in the Pond Coloring Club today!
Encourage your students to:
scribble small spiral circle shapes
alternate direction - clockwise and counter-clockwise
to persist and fill the bowl
to draw their popcorn in yellow crayon and use watery-paint for a crayon-resit effect
draw additional patterns or a design on the bowl
If you're looking for ways to extend this experience with early language, reading and math activities, my new action rhyme will delight your students! They can be interactive with the text, performing actions, sounds and listening for the corn popping!
Together with the printable text, I've included some visuals for retelling the rhyme. Use them in math warm ups and activities too.
The action rhyme encourages the students to listen for the pops. Here you will clap a number between 1-5 (or extend to higher numbers) and they will count them. They can:
call the number you clap after the final clap
say the numbers as you clap
write the numbers as you clap on little whiteboards
tell you the next number
tell you the number of kernels (seeds) that did not pop (partitioning to 5)
Idea:
Add the visuals to your teaching easel and have a student model what they heard by moving the popcorn to cover the number of seeds in the pan. For example, if you clapped three times, they would cover 1, 2 and 3. Here your children can clearly see that 3 and 2 will make a total of 5 and link it to the numerals/symbols on the pictures.
I hope your children have lots of fun scribbling popcorn to help develop their drawing and creativity. If you'd like to extend their learning with some early literacy and math skills take a look at the full pack of printables over in my TPT store!
Engage your students in numbers and counting with dot cards for one, two and three. Beyond getting a sense of the number, when you're introducing numbers 1-5 it's an ideal time to develop some foundational concepts for other areas of math like addition. You can help students build an understanding of the doubling strategy by playing with a pair of one cards to make 2 for example.
