E is for...Egg Carton Math Mat

Cristi from Through the Calm and Through the Storm and Meg from Adventures with Jude are hosting this great weekly party called Blogging Through the Alphabet. All are welcome to join in, just make sure to keep your posts family-friendly. I am determined to stay faithful this time around. I might not always post on the same day of the week, but I have every intention to post something each week.

Here is how I decided my "theme" for this round of Blogging Through the Alphabet. As I was going through old blog posts recently, I noticed I have some neat ideas for activities and crafts that I did with in the past. Unfortunately, I always included them in my weekly wrap up posts or more recently in Poppins Book Nook posts, so they sort of got buried. I can't really share them as individual activities or create pinnable images to promote them and share my ideas, which is why I started this blog in the first place (to share my ideas with others who work with children). So, I am going to make new posts for these ideas.

I have found there is a huge benefit in this strategy. I am remembering  ideas that I had forgotten, which means I can now do these activities with the younger children. I will be sharing the old pictures and possibly sharing new pictures of the younger children participating. In fact, this is the second week where I wasn't sure what I was going to post about, and through searching my blog I found activities I had completely forgotten about.

Five summers ago I focused on one number a week with Tabitha and Amelia. We made a number book and did number crafts. I also came up with a fun way to display our numbers. Then I used that activity to further the girls' math knowledge during the following school year. 

E is for . . . Egg Carton Math Mat

I printed out a picture of an egg carton and wrote "How many eggs?" on the bottom. Then I added Velcro strips to each cup, plus one piece to the middle of the lid. I also cut out little oval "eggs" and put the other side of the Velcro on the back of them. 

Originally this egg carton paper was attached to our poster. I had made paper strips which had the number written out plus the numeral. The girls were to a place the number strip to the carton and then attach the correct number of eggs. As we made our way through the summer, more and more eggs filled our egg carton.

As I mentioned, during the next school year I then thought this would be a fun way to work on math skills. Specifically, the concept of zero. First I asked the girls if the egg carton was full or empty. When they told me it was full I took one egg away at a time, each time asking if it was now empty. Finally, it was empty and they learned that there were zero eggs in the egg carton.

Then we worked on some subtraction.  I made up some equation cards from 1-12, plus some number cards for the same amounts. 

These equation cards looked like this:

The Numeral - Empty Box with Question Mark = 0

I put the card above the egg carton and the girls had to put the correct number of eggs in the carton.

Then I asked them how many eggs they would have to take away to make it empty again, to equal zero. They used the number cards. These cards were just square pieces of paper that fit over the square on the equation card.

They found the right number, and took away the eggs. Then they put the numeral card in the equation.

Both Tabitha and Amelia enjoyed this hands-on math activity. They were only 3 and 2 years old at the time.

This can also be used for general addition and subtraction practice for numbers up to 12.