Foundational Math Topics
Age/Grade Levels
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Content Format: Download
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: Book Ideas
3 Children’s Books Where Small Numbers Matter
August 11, 2020
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: Kindergarten, Pre-K
- Tags Family Math, More Fewer Less, Pat Mora, Sergio Ruzzier, Subitizing, Tana Hoban, Two Mice, Uno Dos Tres/One Two Three
Series: Focus on Play June 7, 2020
Quantity Cards
En Español También. 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 have available on our site use a variety of pictures or "suits," since matching quantities such as fingers and dots can help develop ideas about equivalence.
- Age/Grade Level: 1st Grade, Kindergarten, Pre-K
- Tags En Español, Family Math, Games, Play, Subitizing
Series: Focus on Play June 5, 2020
How to Adapt Math Card Games to Children’s Skill Level
En Español También. 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 skills as they develop over time.
- Topic: Counting, Number Operations
- Age/Grade Level: 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, Kindergarten, Pre-K
- Tags En Español, Family Math, Games, Play, Subitizing
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: Kindergarten, Pre-K
- Tags 1, 1-2-3 to the Zoo: A Counting Book, 2, Anno’s Counting Book, Count and See, Count Me In!, Count!, Cynthia Weill, Denise Fleming, Donald Crews, Ellen Stoll Walsh, Eric Carle, Fish Eyes, Lois Ehlert, Mitsumasa Anno, Mouse Count, Tana Hoban, Ten Black Dots
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: Kindergarten, Pre-K
- Tags Color Farm, Color Zoo, Cubes Cones Cylinders & Spheres, Lois Ehlert, Roseanne Thong, Round as a Tortilla, Shapes Shapes Shapes, Tana Hoban
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 about what is happening from page to page.
- Topic: Sets
- Age/Grade Level: Kindergarten, Pre-K
- Tags A Pair of Socks, Cynthia Weill, Emily Jenkins, Exactly the Opposite, Five Creatures, Is it Red? Is it Yellow? Is it Blue?, Opuestos/Opposites, Stuart J Murphy, Tana Hoban
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 Five Creatures.
- Topic: Sets
- Age/Grade Level: Kindergarten, Pre-K
Series: Focus on Play April 29, 2019
A New Focus for Playing Familiar Card Games
En Español También. 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: Kindergarten, Pre-K
- Tags Cardinality, Dot cards, En Español, Equivalence, Family Math, Games, Play, Subitizing
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 total number in a variety of ways.
- Topic: Number Sense
- Age/Grade Level: Kindergarten, Pre-K
- Tags Games, Subitizing