Fun math game for reinforcing addition and subtraction

I recently put together this math game for Rylan and I to play, which for now we are using to practice addition and subtraction, but eventually I will add multiplication as we continue to move through the math curriculum. The game was a big success, Rylan had a lot of fun! We were still playing when Damian woke up and he wanted to play too, so I think I will have to make a preschooler version of the game for him as well.

So, here are the details of the game:

Firstly I made these cards, which I actually copied out of the Singapore Math Books, but they are easy enough to make yourself. I colored the even numbers blue (Damian’s favorite color) and the odd numbers orange (Rylan’s favorite) and the equation signs are all yellow/green. Once colored, I stuck the paper onto cardboard using a lot of glue to make sure they would stick well, then laminated them before cutting them out into card shapes. I made several sets of the numbers from 0-10 and a mix of actual numbers and written numbers, just to add another dimension to the learning.

So now that we have a deck of number cards, how to play? This is what we did: I laid all the equation signs (+, –, =) in between us, then gave each of us 3 cards to start with and put the rest of the cards upside down in a pile between us. The goal of the game is to make as many equations as possible using the cards you pick up. So, you start with 3, if you cannot make an equation with your starting cards, you pick up one, and so one taking turns until you can make an equation. Once you make an equation, you put the cards you used aside, and carry on with what is left over. The winner is the person who has the most cards set aside (from making equations) when the deck runs out. If there were cards left over in our hands, we subtracted the same amount from our equation pile (I hope this is making sense to you all!).

We started by doing basic addition and subtraction.

Then we moved onto three number addition and/or subtraction equations (we started with 4 cards for these games).

Then we moved on to two sided addition and subtraction equations.

When we ended the game after many rounds, Rylan told me he was looking forward to playing again soon!

This has been added to: Show & Tell

Nurturing virtue: cleanliness concentration game (printable)

This past week the boys and I have been learning about the virtue of cleanliness. There are so many great activities to do with this virtue, we have had a lot of fun. This morning we played a cleanliness concentration game that I made for them over the weekend.

Below are some sample cards from the game (cards are 4x6 size).

There are more cards included in the download. I printed them out on cardstock and then laminated them using 4x6 sized laminating pouches, so they last through a lot of use.

My boys loved this game! Rylan helped Damian find sets and he told me at the end that it felt really good to work as a team instead of trying to win (mommy smiled inside BIG TIME)!

You can also use these cards as flashcards, to make a cleanliness flip book, to play a “go fish” card game, to play a matching game (like concentration, but with the cards facing up, so it is easier for younger children). There are probably lots of other ways to use them too!

You can download the cleanliness concentration game here. Have fun!

Added to Preschool Corner and 5K too.

Nurturing virtue: Thankfulness (Gratitude)

What we did this week:

After defining the virtue of thankfulness we used finger puppets to act out what being thankful looks like, read this book, then made our virtue posters for the week. {Rylan drew his mom, dad, and Damian…just melt my heart}

We used to save a portion of our circle time to reflect on what we are grateful for at that moment, but last week we changed this a little. Now we carry out this reflection each day during our family dinner. I thought it would be good to do this as a family, instead of just me with the boys, plus it stimulates interesting dinner conversation. We all reflect on our day together, Ramtin gets to hear everything we did and we get to hear about his day, and because it is all done in the light of what we are grateful for, it brings more joy and smiles to the table. It is a wonderful family tradition that I am glad we started, and highly recommend. Recent research has shown that having an attitude of thankfulness can lead to a healthier, happier life; so this is a great way to foster it as a natural part of our children's character (and our own too!). A variation of this activity could be to create a family gratitude jar.

We built this tree of thankfulness throughout the week, adding a few more leaves each day.We played two games related to thankfulness this week – the first one was the gratitude bag. I filled a bag with little cards on which were written things that I know the boys love (are grateful for), plus some pictures of those things (for Damian’s sake). I cut the pictures from old magazines. I also threw in several cards that just said “thankful for”, so the kids could add their own thoughts to the game. We took turns pulling a card out the bag and then explaining why we are grateful for the item on it.

The second game was to list the “best thing” about whatever I called out. I made a list of things, here are some examples: trees, the beach, music, books, sunny days, rainy days, this room, our family, your brother, right now, our neighborhood, dinosaurs, our planet, pencils, paper, fruit, dentists, etc. The goal was to call out the best thing about each of them as quickly as possible, hopefully an exercise in focusing on the positive aspects of things, which is a part of being able to feel gratitude.

We were also going to make a set of thank you cards to have on hand for future need (I have made a point of teaching my boys to always make thank you cards for gifts they are given), but we had the opportunity to spend a day here with friends, so we skipped Friday’s activity…but we had a lot to be grateful for at the end of the day! :)

Happy virtue teaching!

Previous week: courtesy

Added to: Preschool Corner (& 5K too)

Memory games

A quick and easy memory game to set up for young kids, is to lay a selection of objects onto a tray, ask them to take a good look at it (they should also be allowed to touch the objects too, especially if your child is a very tactile/kinesthetic learner), then have them turn around while you remove one object. See if they can recall which object is missing, see if they can describe it. You can remove more than one object to make it harder, or remove the entire tray and see if they can recall all the objects that were placed on it. Another great memory activity is the classical concentration game. We have a few variations of this game, but my favourite is definitely I Never Forget a Face by eeBoo. I love that the game is made of children's faces from all around the world. Not only does it create a beautiful picture of unity in diversity, but it sparks a lot of conversation about where each person comes from (we could do a whole geography based unit study from this game....something for the future, I think!).

Ring toss

Rylan wanted to play a "new" game today, so we put together a little homemade ring toss game. An old vitamin bottle (with some rice in it to keep the bottle stable) and some pipe cleaners twisted together into little circles for the rings. I got the idea from this great blog that I enjoy reading.
We had fun, definitely lots of laughs, because even Mom kept missing (queen of coordination, I am not!!!).

Hope you all have a wonderfully fun weekend!