With our little nugget heading off to kindergarten this coming school year, we thought it would be a good idea to start reinforcing some of the math skills that she’s been learning at school, at home too. So, I scoured around for some fun addition activities and found a few that we absolutely love. In case you are also in the process of introducing your little ones to the magic of mathematics, I figured I would go ahead and share some of our favorite resources for learning addition!
As it turns out, there are a ton of great math printables and manipulatives out there – these are just a few of our favorites.
Counting Bears Addition
What could be better than doing math with teddy bears? We love utilizing the colorful little bears from Learning Resources as counting and color-sorting manipulatives…so when I came across this free printable for Counting Bear Addition Cards, over on The Kindergarten Connection, I just knew we had to have them! Learning is always more fun and engaging when it’s colorful…and when there are cute little bears smiling up at you. π
If you would like to do some Counting Bear Addition with your little ones, go ahead and pop over to The Kindergarten Connection, to get your free printable. Since I wanted our addition cards to be reusable, I went ahead and laminated them, using these Avery Self-Adhesive Laminating Sheets. Once the sheets are laminated, our daughter uses a dry-erase marker to fill in all of the answers. Our little nugget loves counting out her own bears and adding them to the appropriate spot on the worksheet…before she commences adding them all together. That being said, having the actual counting bears is not required for this activity, but if you would like to purchase a set of your own (because they come in handy for so many other things too), you can follow the above link over to Learning Resources…or you can pick up a set from Amazon (they are the exact same price, and if you have Amazon Prime you get the added bonus of free 2-day shipping)!
Our little nugget loves using these counting bear addition cards! And I love that they are reusable – I can continue to set them out as a math activity on any given day, without ever having to print more copies. Combining the worksheets with the actual bears provides a multitude of counting and color-sorting practice. This activity also provides lots of number-writing practice, as well. It’s definitely one of our favorite ways to learn and practice addition.
Make sure to check out the multitude of other free printables that Alex kindly provides, over on The Kindergarten Connection! She shares so many fun, educational ideas!
Say It, Make It, Write It – Addition
I fell in love with Nichole’s (You Clever Monkey) Say It, Make It, Write It printables the very first moment I ever laid eyes on them! This one free printable can be utilized in so many different ways, and can enhance a variety of different skills. The same exact worksheet can be used to promote literacy with letter and sight word practice; it’s perfect for practicing name recognition; and it comes in incredibly handy when learning numbers and other basic mathematics skills.
I have a few of these worksheets printed out (since we use them for so many different learning activities). And just like the counting bear printable, I laminated these (with the Avery Laminating Sheets) as well. The only other items you will need for this activity are a dry-erase marker (if your sheet is laminated) and some counting manipulatives – since it’s February, we utilized some colorful hearts.
Our favorite way to use this printable is to start by writing a simple addition equation in the top box. Our little nugget reads the equation out loud (Say It). Then she counts and sorts the necessary manipulatives (hearts) into the middle box (Make It). Lastly, she uses the dry-erase marker to write the answer to the equation – both the numeral and the word (Write It). We love that there are so many different facets to this one activity – it keeps our daughter fully engaged!
Nichole has a ton of other fantastic printables, so make sure to check outΒ You Clever Monkey when you get a chance.
Math Cube + Domino Addition
Learning Resources also sells these awesome Mathlink CubesΒ (which again, are the exact same price on Amazon), and every single preschooler that I’ve met absolutely loves them. They can put them together, pull them apart, and build with them! Our daughter’s school utilizes these cubes on a regular basis, so when I happened upon them in the Target Dollar Spot a few months ago, I snagged a couple of sets. While these cubes can be utilized for many different activities, one of our favorite things to do with them is to pair them with some colorful dominoes for some adding practice.
The math cubes from Target came in red, orange, green, and blue. So I sorted through our Double 12 Mexican Train Dominoes set to find matching colors. If you want to start with smaller numbers, you can also use a Double 6 Dominoes set.
Lay the math cubes out for your child and then hand them a domino. Instruct them to use the corresponding cube colors and put as many cubes together as each side of the domino requires. Once they have their two sets, ask them how many cubes they have in each stack. Tell them to add them together (they can combine the two stacks into one big tower) and count all of the cubes to find the correct answer. I also like to ask our daughter which number is bigger – it’s a lot easier to tell when she can see the answer visually, based on the height of the cube stacks.
Don’t be surprised if your kiddos leap right into some creative math cube and domino play when the addition activity is complete. Our daughter always attempts to build the tallest math cube tower, before moving on to construct a few other structures. And you can’t get dominoes out without building a fun design to send toppling over, right?!? π
I have yet to meet a kid (or adult, for that matter) who can resist building and knocking down dominoes. This fun activity promotes dexterity, as well as those all-important fine motor skills. And it provides a great opportunity to teach your kiddos about chain reactions (i.e. the domino effect).
Add It Up! – Addition Worksheets
These Add It Up! worksheets are another free printable that I stumbled upon, over on Mama’s Learning Corner. I love that they come in black and white – it gives our little nugget an added opportunity to get creative with color, when she’s finished adding everything together! That being said, I chose not to laminate these sheets, but you certainly could. In fact, you could have your kiddos color in the pictures prior to laminating them. Now, why didn’t I think of that earlier? π
I love setting something like this out for our little nugget to complete when I’m busy making a meal or cleaning up. It’s something that she can finish all by herself and it keeps her completely engaged!
And there you have it…just a few of the many ways that we like to practice and promote adding skills. And since our little nugget has a pretty good grasp on addition, I think it’s time to introduce subtraction. I’ll be sure to share our favorite subtraction resources in the next few months.
What are some of your favorite ways to introduce different math concepts to your kiddos? I would love to hear your ideas in the comments below!
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