Math is considered as a crucial Core Skill, forming one of the 5 C’s in the Begin Approach, which aims to enable children to excel academically and in their daily lives. The level of math skills at the start of kindergarten is the most accurate indicator of future academic achievement, however, not every child finds conventional methods of learning math enjoyable. This is where kindergarten math activities come into play. They offer an effective means of connecting math education with children’s innate inclination towards play.
The following text provides a step-by-step explanation of “The Short Cut.” 1. Begin by choosing the starting point. 2. Determine the desired destination. 3. Identify any obstacles that may hinder progress. 4. Evaluate possible alternatives to overcome the obstacles. 5. Select the most efficient alternative. 6. Implement the chosen alternative. 7. Continuously assess progress and make adjustments if necessary. 8. Reach the destination efficiently by following the chosen path. 9. Reflect on the journey and the effectiveness of “The Short Cut.”
- Math is an essential Core Skill, and early learners with strong Core Skills do better in school later on
- Essential kindergarten math concepts include counting and cardinality, recognizing numbers beyond 10, adding and subtracting, and recognizing shapes
- Giving positive feedback often and using math in everyday life (“Can you put four apples in our shopping bag?”) can help kindergarteners learn math skills
In this article, you will find a comprehensive guide to assist your child in establishing a strong basis in mathematics. These enjoyable activities, which can be done at home, provide numerous learning chances while keeping your child engaged.
Kindergarten Math Concepts
To begin, it is important to have an understanding of the concepts that your young learner will be learning in kindergarten. This knowledge will make it easier to determine which activities and math skills to prioritize for home learning.
1. Shape Hunt
To begin, choose two objects in your house that have different appearances but share the same form. Next, provide your child with hints about one of the objects. As an illustration, you could mention, “It possesses a circular shape.”
Encourage your child to think step by step and solve this shape mystery. Once they are confident about identifying the object, have them use their detective notebook to draw it. Repeat this process for the second object.
After your little detective discovers and illustrates the two objects, you can assess them and converse about other items that possess the same shape. Hence, for objects that are circular, they could include plates, pizza, door handles, and more.
After ensuring understanding of the shape’s properties, you can repeat the game with a different shape (such as a triangle or square). There is no need to restrict your search to indoor spaces; you can also explore your garden, local park, or neighborhood to find various intriguing shapes.
2. Count the Beans
In order to participate in this enjoyable activity, you will require a spoon which should be held in an extended manner. Subsequently, your child will place individual dried kidney beans onto the spoon. Once the initial bean falls off, you can determine the quantity of beans successfully placed on the spoon.
If you want to play this game with a bigger spoon, your child will need to be comfortable with higher numbers first. To assist, a basic 10 frame, which is a rectangular shape with ten equal spaces (five on top and five on the bottom), should be sufficient.
By breaking up the beans into sets of 10 and placing them in individual paper cups, you can easily keep track of the count. Once completed, distribute the cups evenly among the frames and combine all the beans to determine the total number. This engaging exercise allows kindergarteners to reinforce their counting skills and develop a grasp of numerical concepts.
3. Building Sets with Blocks
In this activity, you will need to instruct your young learner to create a tower of a particular color using a specified amount of blocks. For instance, you could say, “Construct a tower using 10 blocks, all of them being blue. Additionally, create a second tower using eight blocks, all of them being red. Lastly, build a third tower using 11 blocks, all of them being yellow.”
This activity can be a helpful way to enhance memory skills for children, as they will need to remember all of the provided information. Additionally, children will have the opportunity to practice their color recognition and counting abilities during this activity.
4. Number Guessing
To complete this activity, instruct your child to place their hands behind their back. Following that, you should give them one of the magnetic numbers to feel and determine. Can they correctly identify the number? If it proves to be too difficult initially, a useful tactic is to provide them with an additional set of magnetic numbers that they can visually refer to while feeling.
This activity is a wonderful way for children to become more familiar with the distinct shape and characteristics of each number.
5. Color Matching
One of the most effective activities for teaching counting to your child is color matching. The added benefit of this activity is that your child not only learns to count but also effectively memorizes the names of different colors.
To complete this activity, gather colorful balls and corresponding buckets. Prompt your child to match the colors and place the balls in their respective buckets, while simultaneously counting them. For instance, if there are five red balls, have the child put them into the red bucket while keeping track of the number of balls.
6. Button Counting
One of the most enjoyable activities for kindergarten is the button counting game. This game is beneficial for enhancing a child’s analytical skills from an early age. It involves colorful buttons in various shapes, cups of different colors, and cutouts with widths that allow the buttons to fit through them.
Instruct the child to arrange the buttons by color and place each group in the corresponding cup. Ensure that the child keeps track of the button count while placing them in the cups.
7. One Bowl Two Fish
Children can have a lot of fun with this math activity as it requires them to use their thinking skills. Additionally, this activity serves as an initial step in making math problems easier. The main purpose of this activity is to educate children on how to break down numbers in different ways.
To successfully complete this task, make sure to have an activity book or notebook handy, along with a bowl and two fish patterns.
Ensure that you instruct your child that the number five can be obtained by either adding 2 and 3 or adding 1 and 4. Encourage them to repeatedly exercise this method for various numbers. Nevertheless, always commence with single-digit numbers that have a smaller number of combinations.
8. What Comes Next?
These math activities for kindergarten are straightforward and assist in assessing children’s memory. The basic concept behind these activities is to evaluate kids’ memory by inquiring about the following numbers when counting.
Arrange colorful cutouts of different numerals and ask your child what comes next in the order by placing four or five numerals in front of them.
9. Stacking
Stacking, which is one of the best math activities for kindergarten, is highly favored by most preschools because of its simplicity. The primary objective of this activity is to enhance the child’s analytical skills in an enjoyable manner.
Colorful blocks with different numbers written on them in bold. Divide the kids into small groups and ask them to stack the cups while reading out the numbers written on it.
10. Number Bingo
Next on our list of kindergarten Common-Core math activities is Number Bingo. This game is suitable for children who have acquired knowledge of numerals up to 20 or 25.
To begin, cut a board into a square shape and gather pen markers and colorful buttons. Then, proceed by randomly writing numbers on the square board. Finally, instruct the child to place the buttons on the numbers that are announced.
11. Board Game
Board games can be a good choice if you are seeking hands-on math activities for kindergarten students. These games allow kids to enhance their identification skills and acquire knowledge of basic math.
Any game board that contains printed numbers and requires a dice.
In a sequential manner, request the child to roll the dice positioned on the board, and subsequently instruct them to advance their game piece to the corresponding numbered space indicated by the dice’s outcome. To illustrate further, if your child’s token currently occupies space number 4 and upon rolling the dice, they obtain a result of 3, then assist them in progressing 3 spaces ahead to reach space number 7.
12. Monster Eyes
Teachers have to regularly incorporate fun elements into online math activities for kindergarteners as kids tend to lose interest in anything they find boring. An activity called Monster eyes serves this purpose by not only being enjoyable but also enhancing the child’s observation skills.
The worksheet consists of illustrations of monsters along with tiny monster eyes.
On the child’s worksheet, create a drawing of a monster and place some numbers either at the top or bottom. Additionally, incorporate addition or subtraction symbols to promote a learning experience. Next, prompt the child to add up the numbers and fill the corresponding sections with the calculated total number of eyes.
13. Number Line
The primary objective of this math activity for kindergarteners is to introduce addition and subtraction on a number line in an engaging manner. By participating in this activity, children can easily understand the fundamentals of these operations.
Begin with a sheet of paper containing printed numerals and small toy cars. Instruct the learner to select a number, such as 4, and place their toy car on it. Next, guide them to increase their current position by 2, specifically the number 4, and relocate the car to the resulting sum.
