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The activities and games we provide align with our Big Ideas of math and are tried-and-true ways to engage children in thinking about them. We don't offer a curriculum, but instead, we hope these selected activities will complement your current math teaching or at-home play, enriching your understanding of the Big Ideas in action, and serve as examples of simple, yet powerful math learning in preschool, kindergarten, and the primary years.
Whether it's story time, game time, or family time, we hope these ideas will complement your routines as well as bring out the Big Ideas that support a lifetime of mathematical thinking.
Series: Ideas at Work
How to Use Digital Photos to Build a Mathematical Language Routine for Kids
June 6, 2022
It turns out that mathematical thinking is developed in conversation with others; asking students “how do you know that?” will reveal a child’s mathematical reasoning skills. The ability to explain one’s thinking is a cognitive leap that requires protected time for meaningful conversation.
- Topic: Sets, Number Sense
- Age/Grade Level: Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade
- Tags English Language Learner, Number Talks
Series: Focus on Play November 17, 2021
Quantity Cards for Subitizing
Quantity is a particular amount of something, expressed as a number. Quantity cards for young children can have pictures of small sets such as dots, finger patterns, or 5- or 10- frames. The ones we…
- Topic: Number Sense
- Age/Grade Level: Pre-K, Kindergarten
- Tags Subitizing, Play, Games, Family Math, En Español
Series: Book Ideas August 11, 2020
3 Children’s Books Where Small Numbers Matter
As children start using number words, they don’t always have a sense of what those words really mean. Early on, we guide children to develop a meaningful number sense by focusing on small numbers.
- Topic: Number Sense
- Age/Grade Level: Pre-K, Kindergarten
- Tags Subitizing, Tana Hoban, Family Math, More Fewer Less, Uno Dos Tres/One Two Three, Pat Mora, Two Mice, Sergio Ruzzier, download
Series: Focus on Play June 5, 2020
How to Adapt Math Card Games to Children’s Skill Level
Card games provide meaningful practice of the basic number combinations. These common card games that children learn in school or at home can be revisited many times and can be adapted to children’s own math…
- Topic: Counting, Number Operations
- Age/Grade Level: Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade
- Tags Subitizing, Play, Games, Family Math, En Español, download
Series: Book Ideas March 24, 2020
At-Home Activity Cards: Counting
Activities related to counting books can spark a lot of conversation and creativity. These English and Spanish-language activity cards are great for printing and using at home and school.
- Topic: Counting
- Age/Grade Level: Pre-K, Kindergarten
- Tags Eric Carle, Ellen Stoll Walsh, Lois Ehlert, Tana Hoban, Denise Fleming, Mitsumasa Anno, Donald Crews, Cynthia Weill, Count!, Anno’s Counting Book, Ten Black Dots, Count and See, Count Me In!, Mouse Count, 1, 2, 1-2-3 to the Zoo: A Counting Book, Fish Eyes, download
Series: Book Ideas March 23, 2020
At-Home Activity Cards: Shapes
Books can illustrate kindergarten and preschool shape concepts while introducing foundational Big Ideas of math. These activity cards can help take the learning to the home environment where parents and caregivers can spark such discussion.
- Topic: Shape
- Age/Grade Level: Pre-K, Kindergarten
- Tags Lois Ehlert, Tana Hoban, Roseanne Thong, Shapes Shapes Shapes, Round as a Tortilla, Color Farm, Color Zoo, Cubes Cones Cylinders & Spheres, download
Series: Book Ideas March 22, 2020
At-Home Activity Cards: Sets and Sorting
These printable activity cards in both English and Spanish invite home explorations with sets and sorting using the books and activities related to them. The books can encourage conversations about attributes while also inspiring questions…
- Topic: Sets
- Age/Grade Level: Pre-K, Kindergarten
- Tags Tana Hoban, Cynthia Weill, Stuart J Murphy, Emily Jenkins, A Pair of Socks, Exactly the Opposite, Opuestos/Opposites, Five Creatures, Is it Red? Is it Yellow? Is it Blue?, download
Series: Focus on Play March 17, 2020
Creatures at Home Activity
In both English and Spanish, the directions here outline how to do an activity at home that can allow parents to involve themselves with the learning taking place in classrooms, all tied to the book…
- Topic: Sets
- Age/Grade Level: Pre-K, Kindergarten
- Tags download
Series: Focus on Play April 29, 2019
A New Focus for Familiar Card Games
Here you can download cards and simple-to-learn game ideas to help young children build their understanding of early math concepts such as cardinality, composing and comparing numbers, and allowing them to subitize.
- Topic: Number Sense
- Age/Grade Level: Pre-K, Kindergarten
- Tags Subitizing, download, En Español, Cardinality, Family Math, Dot cards, Games, Play, Equivalence
Series: Focus on Play September 25, 2018
The Hoop Game
This game played with a hula hoop and bean bags demonstrates all the math that can be explored with a simple tossing game. Each round gives children practice seeing and naming smaller parts of a…
- Topic: Number Sense
- Age/Grade Level: Pre-K, Kindergarten
- Tags Subitizing, Games, download
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