Adding in small but beneficial bits of learning into your children’s day goes a long long way. My son was in full day kindergarten this year and was really tired when he returned home. I still wanted to do fun educational activities with him but knew I had to keep them brief. A few days a week in addition to his homework ( which was optional this year ) we would do short activities like this math activity for kids. The key is that they are fun and don’t FEEL like homework. We don’t want to burn our kids out. You can find more of these Learning After School ( or summer camp) activities here.
- Gather your materials. You will need some two sheets of paper, a pencil , markers and some painter’s tape. It’s also handy to have a window near by.
- Draw any shape. I chose a rocket. Add dots along the shape .
- Tape it to the window and pop the second sheet of paper on top and trace only the dots. Add in any interior lines too.
- Add the equations at each dot. Make sure they are in order . They should start by equaling 1 ( 3-2 = 1 ) then 2( 4-2 = 2 ) and so on and so forth. Your child will connect the answers to the equations in order from 1 on. You could adapt this for other types of math like skip counting .
- I wrote out the directions for my son to sneak in some reading too.
- Start!
This didn’t take him long but he loved it.
- Color when you are done. My son is not a fan of coloring but I add it in with things he loves like math to try to make it more fun for him . Coloring can seem like busy work but it is great practice for writing which most kids this age need work on so don’t miss out on coloring.
For more great math activities check out my Math Is Fun Pinterest board.
rebecca at thisfineday says
Great idea! I love it. Now that my oldest is entering kinder in the fall- I feel the activities we do should be both fun and entail some super useful learning skills! Thanks for the post. Pinning now!
S says
Good morning I
I love your easy hands on ideas thanks from Harvey Illinois Teacher