D is for...Donut Dots Math Game

I began this Blogging Through the Alphabet journey a couple of weeks ago, and 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 plan to post something each week. And I can't believe I almost missed the letter D. I completely forgot to get this posted before heading out for my son's wedding this weekend. Phew, I got it up though.

Cristi from Through the Calm and Through the Storm and Meg from Adventures with Jude are hosting this weekly party. All are welcome to join in. You don't have to be a Schoolhouse Review Crew blogger or a homeschooler, but you do have to keep your posts family-friendly.

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.

One of the benefits in doing this is, I am remembering these 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.

Several years ago I decided to make a math game out of donuts. We were doing Letter of the Week and had made donuts to go with D. They were really yummy too. Then we made these simple donut crafts that I decided would make a great game.

D is for . . . Donut Dots Math Game

I just cut a donut shape out of white construction paper.  Then I cut out the brown paper to look like chocolate glaze.  The girls glued them together. Not much of a craft, but it was meant for them to take part in making our game. 

To play the game we used pony beads as sprinkles and I made game cards.  We had cards numbered where the girls could add on 1-5 sprinkles, represented by the dots.  Or they could lose 1-3 sprinkles (I wrote these cards in red pencil and left only used outlines of dots instead of the black dots). We drew one card per turn and added or subtracted the designated number of  "sprinkles."  The winner was the one with the most sprinkles after we ran out of cards.

A is for. . . Adding Up The Steps

A couple of fellow bloggers have decided to start a new round of Blogging Through the Alphabet. I have attempted this before, but I haven't been very successful. This time I have a different idea though. As I was going through old blog posts this past week, I noticed I have some neat ideas for activities and crafts that I did with the older girls when they were younger. Unfortunately, I always included them in my weekly wrap up posts, so they sort of got buried in my archives. 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. So, I am going to make new posts for these ideas.

One of the benefits in doing this is, I am remembering these 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.

Several years ago I came up with this neat beginning math activity for the older girls. I called it, "Adding Up the Steps."  

A is for. . .Adding Up The Steps

Here is how it worked:

I wrote one number 1-16 on half a sheet of paper and placed them on the stairs.

Then I made some cards depicting the number we were to add.  +1, +2 and +3 cards.  These were made on 1/4 of a sheet of construction paper.

The girls took turns picking one card.  

I put the equations on the easel.  They both started on 0 of course (the floor) and they had to climb the number of steps shown on the card they picked.  Then they told me what number step they were on.  I then said and finished the equation.

After they both took a turn, I erased the equations, replacing the first numbers with the steps they were now on.

We continued this way all the way up the steps.

They had to draw the exact number to reach 16 because other wise they would have had to climb higher which they obviously couldn't do.

Amelia scooted down the steps, counting backwards as she went.

The numbers remained on the steps for a while.  We played the game several times and when Amelia climbed the stairs she would count, which we did with all the children when they were little. However,  having the numbers on the steps helped her make the connection between the number and the numeral.  They definitely enjoy counting backward on the way down. We never did use them for subtraction, though I had wanted to. I will have to remember to do so with Hannah and Harold.

Papa Piccolo: Kittens in the Gondola Game

I had printed out some gondolas to go with our Papa Piccolo unit, but wasn't sure at first how to use them. I wanted to add some kittens to them, thought about putting numbers on the gondolas and having the girls place that many kittens on the respective gondola. I actually may still do that with Hannah, but I came up with a "game" for the girls.  They already know their numbers pretty well. So I thought some addition and subtraction practice would be fun.

This is how I set up the game. I found the gondola coloring page over at Crayola's website by googling "gondola coloring page."  The girls each colored five gondolas. Then I taped two sheets of light blue paper together to represent the water of the canals. 

I made number cards by cutting out 1.5 inch squares. I made two sets of numbers 0-5 and one set of 0-10. The kittens were also found by googling "kitten coloring page." Then I just made a sheet of them in my word processing program and printed them onto construction paper.

I had Amelia pick a number and place it on the Velcro, then she was to count out that many kittens for the first gondola.

Tabitha did the same for the second gondola.

Then they added them together.

Then we tried the subtraction.

Amelia chose to place four kittens in the first gondola.

Then I told Tabitha she could pick any number up to four. She chose four and then she was to take four kittens out of the first gondola and put them in the second.  That is the amount of kittens that left the first gondola.

Only problem was, Amelia didn't like Tabitha taking her kittens.

I told her it was just a game and she should come and pick the number to show how many kittens were left in her gondola.

She was so upset she did it so fast and disappeared.

So I told her we would do it again and I made sure Tabitha wouldn't take ALL of Amelia's kittens.

They are looking forward to playing again. Each girl will have her own game that will become a part of their notebooks, but I thought it was more fun to play together.

We are storing the pieces in envelopes on the back. All I have to do now is punch the holes to place it in the binder.

The girls have also been spending their workbook time working on math. Tabitha wants to go into space, so I told her she would have to be an astronaut. So she wanted to know what astronauts need to know. We talked about math and science. So now she thinks she is going to go to space soon as she is doing lots of math. Ooops.

She worked on most of these pages today.

This post is being linked up as a part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew Toys and Games for Homeschool Round Up.