Ten Ways to Play and Learn With Counting Bears

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

I'm sure that every preschool and kindergarten classroom has and uses counting bears (or other counters) in some way!  Many homes have them as well, and they can be a fun and simple way to spend some learning time.  We use these Baby Bear Counters from Learning Resources, but if bears are not your thing you can also find pets, people, jungle animals, vehicles, dinosaurs,or even fruit ! My favorite thing about them is how versatile they are.  I easily sat and taught my 2.5 year old and my 4.5 year old at the same time, giving them each different tasks and moving back and forth between them.

There are lots of cute printables available that you can use to play with your counters.  They're stylish and colorful, and if you have the time and desire to use them then that's fantastic.  But by golly, sometimes you just need to grab a bucket of bears and entertain your kids for a while without having to think about it ahead of time.  Of course you can count them, but there are lots of other ways to use them.  Keep these simple ideas in your back pocket for the next time you need a super quick lesson.

1. Count Them

Work on basic one-to-one correspondence.  Set out a row of bears and let your little one practice counting.

2. Skip Count With Them

 Set them out in rows of 2, 5, or 10 and practice skip counting.  Lena was working on counting by 10s in this picture.

3. Sort Them By Color

Set out one bear of each color and have your little one put the rest in the correct piles.

4. Work on Greater Than/ Less Than

 Set out a small pile and a large pile.  Ask which is greater, more, less, fewer, equal.  Practice using those words.

5. Use Them to Measure

 Get out some books or toys (or a ukulele) and practice non-standard measurement.  How many bears long is the object?  This ukulele was about 12 bears long.

6. Use Them for Basic Math Facts
Set out simple math problems.  2 bears + 2 bears = 4 bears.

7. Make Patterns with Them

 Younger children can make basic A/B patterns while older children can work on more complicated patterns.

8. Make Shapes or Words With Them

Arrange them into shapes or letters.  Use them to spell simple words.

9. Wash Them

Hand your kiddos a bowl of water, some bears, a squirt of soap, and a rag.  Bath time!

10. Use Them for Imaginative Play
I know my girls love to plunk them around, make them talk, put them to bed, wrap them up, and so on.  Encourage your children to do the same!

- Original source---See more at: http://www.cuttingtinybites.com/2015/01/10-ways-to-play-and-learn-with-counting.html#sthash.xv9GGUaC.dpuf

1.G Grandfather Tang's Story

Alignments to Content Standards: 1.G.A.2

Student View

Task

Materials

• A copy of Grandfather Tang's Story by Ann Tompert
• One set of tangrams for each student (see note in commentary)
• A set of tangrams for the teacher (magnetic for the whiteboard or colored to use on a document projector)
• Character worksheet
• Crayons

Actions

• The teacher reads Grandfather Tang's Story to the class. As the teacher comes to each character in the story, note the picture of the animal that is an outline of a shape that can be made with tangrams. Students may need to spend some time looking to see how these outlines represent the animals since they are somewhat abstract. Ask the students if they see familiar shapes as components of the animal outlines--for example, the tail of the fox is a trapezoid and the wings of the hawk are triangles.
• After the class has read the story, the students choose animals from the story to make with the tangrams. The worksheet shows the tangram animals, and when they have made an animal, they color the corresponding shape on the worksheet.
• The teacher can demonstrate for students how to turn and place the tangram shapes as needed to support the students.
• After the students have worked on making 2 or more animals from the book, they can make their own animals.

IM Commentary

The purpose of this task is for students to compose two-dimensional shapes to create a composite shape using the 7 tangram pieces. It is essential that the language the teacher uses during the task is precise to support students' academic vocabulary development. For example, "turn the square so one side is lined up with the shorter side of the rhombus to create the tail of the squirrel."

Trying to make the animals without the internal lines is very challenging, so the worksheet shows how the pieces are composed for each animal. This helps students see the shapes both as a single figure (consisting of the outline and a single region filled inside it) and as a composite shape that can be decomposed into smaller shapes. If the teacher wants to challenge the students, then they can try to make the animals just looking at the outline shown in the book.

As an extra challenge, see if the students can combine their tangrams into the original shape of a large square.

Note: The tangrams can be plastic machine-made sets or students can make them in a preceding lesson. There is a template for creating tangrams attached to this task. If the students create their own tangrams, they will see that the 7 pieces originate from a large square. Making the tangrams for themselves also helps students develop the ability to compose and decompose figures.

Not all of the characters are included on the character worksheet. The students can build these as time permits.

Attached Resources

Character worksheet

Tangram Template

Solution

• If the student completes the fox fairy, hawk, and squirrel, then they will color those three figures:

• There is no single solution for each of the students' own pictures

Click here for original source

Pizza Fractions

By Sue BradfordEdwards

Fractions are tricky to grasp. How is it that 1/2 is bigger than 1/3 when a 3 is bigger than a 2? Once you understand fractions, it makes sense. Until then? It is a big mystery. Help your child see fractions at work as she pretends to gobble up slices of pizza. Make a pizza game board ahead of time, and help your child look at fractions in a whole new way.

What You Need:

• Several sheets of paper
• Marker
• Colored pencils
• Scissors
• Bowl

What You Do:

1. Draw a game board with 10 circles that will function as the pizzas. Decorate them with simple toppings. Tiny triangles and circles work well.
2. Divide these pizzas into fractions. Include one pizza that is cut into halves, two that are cut into thirds, three cut into quarters, and four cut into fifths.
3. Cut a piece of paper into 10 slips. On each one write one of the following fractions --1/2, 1/3, 2/3, 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, 1/5, 2/5, 3/5, and 4/5. Fold the slips in half and drop them into the bowl.
4. Have your child draw a slip of paper from the bowl. If it says 1/4, she gets to “eat” 1 of the 4 pieces by coloring it in. Does she know which pizza is cut into quarters?  Show her that the 4, called the denominator, reveals the total number of pieces in the pizza. The number on top of the fraction, the numerator, shows the number of pieces she gets to eat. Have her color in 1 slice of the pizza that is cut into four pieces.
5. Have her draw another slip of paper. Can she tell you the total number of pieces in this pizza?  Can she tell you how many she gets to eat? Help her find the correct pizza and color in the slices. 
6. Repeat until all of the slips of paper have been used.

Expand on this game by making additional game sheets. Just be certain that the food item is an easily divided shape such as a circle (pizzas, pies, cake) or a square (sandwich or brownie). Try and try again until she can gobble up 2/3 or 3/5 with confidence.

Hula Hoop Times Tables

By Alicia Danyali

If you’re finding it painful to get your child to practice math lessons learned throughout the school year and her skills are slipping, try this mental and physical multitasking game to get your child back into the swing of things. This physical coordination reinforcement activity uses a hula hoop to get the mental juices flowing. It's especially fun with two or more players taking turns and keeping score, but it works just as well with one.

What You Need:

• Hula hoop
• Pad of paper
• Pencil
• Bowl or hat
• Timer

What You Do:

1. Make a list of the multiplication tables your child has learned during the school year. Your child will be reflecting on and reinforcing these lessons as she looks back on what she’s learned. Space these out on the page so that you will be able to cut each item into a separate strip of paper. Once the list seems substantial, cut up the paper, fold it in half, and place it in the bowl or hat.
2. Now let the hula thinking begin! Start by having one person pick a piece of paper from the bowl, read the category out loud and get ready with the hula hoop. The other player will be the note taker, and should write down the times table category and name of the Hula Hooper for score-keeping purposes. Put the paper back in the cup once read, so it can be picked it in the future.
3. The hula hoop player starts hooping, while reciting the times table category that she has chosen. For example, if she has chosen the 6 times table, she should recite "6, 12, 18, 24 ..." as she keeps the hula hoop up. Using a stopwatch or other kind of timer, the note taker keeps track of how long the hula hooper keeps the hoop going while still managing to recite the answers. The turn ends when the hula hoop falls to the ground and stops or the hooper can't come up with any more products.
4. Now the next player gets a turn, following steps 2 and 3, until everyone gets a chance to play and all of the multiplication tables are practiced by each player. If a player chooses a number they've already done, they should place the paper back in the cup and choose again.

Alicia Danyali, BS Elementary Education, taught primary-level students for four years at the International School of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The last four years of her teaching career, she taught at the Washington International School in Washington, D.C. She recently completed writing a series of children's picture books and is a mother of one young son.

Sidewalk Chalk Subtraction

By Keren Perles

To many children, practicing subtraction involves scratching a pencil around on a piece of paper while yawning with boredom. Make subtraction practice more fun with this outdoor review game!

What You Need:

• Sidewalk chalk
• Yardstick or measuring tape
• Bean bags

What You Do:

1. Draw a chalk grid on a driveway or patio. The grid should have at least 25 squares –five down and five across– with each square being about a foot across. You can use a yardstick or measuring tape in order to make the squares more exact.
2. Write one number in each square of the grid. The numbers can be as high as you would like, based on the level of subtraction that children playing the game have mastered. For example, a child who is just starting to learn subtraction should have only one-digit numbers in the grid. A child who has become proficient in subtracting three-digit numbers from each other can have very large numbers in the grid. Make sure that there are no clusters of all large or all small numbers anywhere in the grid.
3. Make a chalk line about six feet away from the grid. (You can make the line closer or farther, depending on how well the children can throw.)
4. Give each child two bean bags.
5. Instruct children to throw their bean bags on the grid and take note of the numbers they fall on. Children should then subtract the smaller number from the larger number to get their final score for the round.
6. Play four more rounds, adding to their previous score at the end of each round. The child with the highest score at the end of five rounds wins the game!

Candy Corn Subtraction

By Tina Cho

Autumn brings beautiful leaves, harvest time, and a popular fall confection—candy corn! With its three colorful segments, this activity is perfectly suited for helping your child with her subtraction skills. Round up some subtraction facts your child is learning in school, cut out some paper candy corn, and have some subtraction fun! With this activity you can also sprinkle in a little math vocabulary as well—minuend, subtrahend, and difference.

What You Need:

• Orange, yellow, and white construction paper
• Template
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Bag of candy corn for use as manipulatives

 

What You Do:

1. Download the candy corn template and print it out. Then have your child cut it out.
2. Help your child trace the pieces onto the colored construction paper as directed. Have her cut out a yellow, orange, and white piece for each candy corn subtraction fact.
3. Think about some subtraction facts your child might need to work on. You can check out some of her math homework from school to see what your child is currently learning.
4. In the yellow part of the candy corn cut out, have your child write the minuend or the large amount that will have another number subtracted from it. Come up with a subtraction problem with your child.
5. In the orange part, have your child write the subtrahend, or the number to be subtracted.
6. In the white part, write the difference, or the answer to the subtraction problem. You can teach your child these math vocabulary words along the way. For example, in the problem 11 – 3 = 8, 11 is the minuend, 3 is the subtrahend, and 8 is the difference.
7. Give your child three candy corn subtraction problems at a time. Mix up the pieces. Set the white pieces on the bottom and explain that these are the answers or differences for the subtraction problems. Can she figure out what the top two pieces are? A yellow piece (or the minuend) goes on top minus an orange piece (or subtrahend) and ending in a white piece or difference. Give her some real candy corn to use as manipulatives to her figure out the problems.
8. When finished, eat some candy corn to celebrate subtraction!

Tina Cho has been an elementary teacher for 11 years, mainly in the kindergarten classroom. She is currently a freelance writer.

Make Your Own Abacus

By Amy Brayfield

Looking for another way to practice basic math skills? If so, have your kid make an abacus. Countries all around the world have been using the abacus for thousands of years to make math problems easier to visualize and calculate. Even children who claim to hate math will be fascinated by this old-fashioned and incredibly simple tool. This abacus is surprisingly easy to construct and is a great way for visual and tactile learners to practice their arithmetic.

What You Need:

• Pencil
• 9 craft sticks
• 56 large pony beads
• 8, 4-inch bamboo skewers (if yours are longer, you can cut them to the right length)
• Wood glue

What You Do:

1. Lay three craft sticks down so they are parallel. Use the pencil to draw eight matching lines on each stick, evenly spaced and centered across the length of the craft sticks.
2. Take the bamboo skewers and align them with the pencil marks. There should be one craft stick at each end of the skewers. The third craft stick should be in the middle, about 1 inch away from one of craft sticks on the end.
3. Put a thin line of glue on each of the pencil lines you've drawn.
4. Carefully thread seven beads on each of the eight skewers. Place the skewers on the glue lines, arranging the beads so that two beads fall into the 1-inch space between the two closely-placed sticks and the other five fall into the larger space between the middle and end sticks. Let the sticks dry.
5. Glue three craft sticks on top of the bamboo skewers so they line up with the sticks below, taking care to keep the beads divided. Let the sticks dry.
6. Glue the last three craft sticks on top of the sticks you've just glued down. Let dry.
7. Flip the abacus over so that the stacked sticks are on the bottom. Depending on the size of the beads, you may have to add more craft sticks to the bottom. The stacked sticks let the beads slide smoothly on the skewers and prevent them from scraping along the surface you're working on.

Now your child has a homemade abacus to practice important math skills! The abacus is a great tool to visually teach your child about addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and even place value.

Step On It!

By Carrie Ann Cain

Help your child “step up” to math challenges with a fun game in your very own kitchen. Not only will this help your child learn basic addition and subtraction facts in an engaging way, it will also get her up and moving--with math!

What You Need:

• Heavy paper, such as oak tag or construction paper
• Marker
• Masking tape
• Hard floors, such as kitchen tiles

What You Do:

1. Before you start the game, write a complete math fact in large type on one side of a sheet of typing paper. If your child is struggling with early math facts, start with low numbers like 1+2=3. By second grade, however, most kids are working with number facts closer to ten, such as 9+8=17; or with subtraction. Wherever you start, write one math equation on one side of each paper, such as 6+6=12; and write just the question (such as 6+6) on the other side. Make at least 20 facts, and then mix them all up.
2. Set up the challenge: tell your child that her mission, should she choose to accept it, is to cross the room without touching the floor, using only her knowledge of math facts. Tape a square of blank construction paper on one side of the room. This is "start." Explain that you will show her a math problem, and every one she gets right will become her next "step" allowing her to move across the floor.
3. Stand in front of your child, and show her the question side of the construction paper. If she states the correct answer to the math problem, turn it around and tape down the answer side a good step-width away. Allow her to move one space forward. Guide your child through the problems as needed, so that she doesn't become frustrated if the math concept is new to her. If your child does not answer the problem correctly, she must stay on the same space. When your youngster gets all the way across the kitchen, she has successfully completed her mission!

In order to keep the Step Game a challenge, try using multiplication or division flashcards as your child advances in math.

Carrie Ann Cain has been teaching second grade for three years. She is certified in elementary education, special education, Spanish, and ESOL (teaching english to speakers of other languages).

How Old is that Tree?

By Jessica McBrayer

Every year on our birthday we have a reminder of how old we are. And if we ever forget, we can always ask our parents! How do you think you find out how old a tree is? When a tree has been cut down, you can count its "rings" in order to tell how old it is, but what about when it is alive? We can't ask a tree how old it is. But there is a way! This activity will teach you and your child a way to estimate the age of a tree without cutting it down. It doesn't work with every tree but it will with a lot of them.

What You Need:

• Tree
• Measuring tape
• Marker
• Pen
• Paper
• Helper

What You Do:

1. Help your child find a tree that is at least as tall as a grown up and have your child wrap the measuring tape around the widest part of the trunk. (A grown up might need to help with this part!) The distance around the trunk of a tree is called the circumference. Write this measurement down on a piece of paper.
2. The measurement of the circumference in inches is also the approximate age of the tree in years!

Did You Know?

Every year a new layer of growth occurs just under the bark. Some trees like firs and redwoods may grow more than this in a year, while others like cedars may grow less. This method is a good rule of thumb to estimate the age of a tree.

Gallon Man

Use the Gallon Man to teach students how many cups, pints, and quarts are in a gallon.

Length, Mass, Liquid Volume Flip Book

Teach your students length, mass, volume and the different conversions within each.

Pumpkin Math

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?

Post Written and Created by Math Maniac

This story is about a group of kids who are asked by their teacher to figure out how many seeds are in 3 different pumpkins. They talk about the size of the pumpkins, estimating and counting ideas. Some kids count by 2's some by 5's and some group the seeds into piles of 10. There is also some great information in this story about how to estimate how many seeds a pumpkin has just by looking at the outside.

I love this lesson because it combines my love of math literature with counting and estimating routines. I began this lesson by presenting my students with 2 pumpkins. I did this lesson with second graders but it would work with other kids K-3 with some small adaptations. One was a very small Jack be Little pumpkin and the other was a larger pie pumpkin. I asked them to estimate which one had more seeds. Everyone was convinced that the larger pumpkin would have a lot more seeds. We made some estimates but they were really all over the place ranging from 17-1000.




Next we cut the pumpkins in half and adjusted our estimates based on what we saw. The estimates for the smaller pumpkin ranged from 80-200 and the estimates for the larger pumpkin ranged from 101-320.


The inside of the larger pumpkin



Inside of the smaller pumpkin

Kids worked in small groups and got all the seeds separated from the other guts. When I do this lesson again, I will be sure to have more pumpkins because despite this being a smaller group of students, there were to many kids working on each pumpkin. I would recommend no more than 4-5 kids per pumpkin for optimum working conditions. Kids continued to adjust and refine their estimates as they put the seeds all in one place. It was obvious to all students that there were more seeds in the large pumpkin than the smaller one.


After a quick rinse of the seeds, the groups counted them mostly grouping into 10's. We came to the conclusion that the small pumpkin had 134 seeds and the large one had 285. We spent some time comparing these numbers and wiring them in different ways. We finished up the lesson by reading the book. It was interesting for kids to compare their own experience with counting the seeds to the experience of the kids in the book.

This was a fun fall lesson and definitely one I will be doing in the future! There are a lot of grade levels that I could apply this lesson with.

                                                       

Ideas for Manipulatives

Created and Written by Jacquie Fisher

 

Teaching kids to count to 100 is a big milestone and one that parents and teachers work on for a few years. 

It's a long journey fraught with numbers like "fifteen-ten" and other assorted creative ways to count. 

And along the way, kids are also learning to count by 2's, 5's, 10's and categorize numeric values.

For a number of years, I remember my kids coming home with a note asking that each child in the class bring in "100 of their favorite item" to celebrate the 100th day of school.

100 of their favorite item -- whew!  Now those were some long discussions --

Kid:  "How about 100 stuffed animals Mom?"

Me:  How about we think of something a little smaller?

Kid:  "I want to bring in something that the other kids won't bring."

Me:  Ok, how about crayons?

Kid:  No

Me:  Tattoos?

Kid:  No

And so it went for about 50 more suggestions until we finally came up with a winner! 

And in the process, we also came up with quite a list of possibilities in case you're having trouble thinking of small items for your 100th Day of School.

9K+

100 Items to Use to Count to 100

There are some super fun ways to help kids practice all this counting.  One popular idea is to introduce a 100's Jar.  Similar to an estimation jar in many classrooms, a 100's Jar holds one-hundred pieces of the same item. 

If you use plastic bottles or jars, you can introduce a number of math concepts such as volume, size and weight.  So the first part of our list includes lots of items that can be counted, sorted, categorized and compared.

I had some extra canning jars that we used to do some counting and comparison.  Just make sure that the jar or bottle you use it transparent so the kids can see & explore the items inside it.  I've also tried to make life easier for you by including affiliate links to items that may not be well-known or might be hard to find.

Items to Count

Since items in this group are so similar, they are great to use for counting by 2's, 5's and 10's when they are sorted.

1.  Paperclips

2.  Pencils

3.  Ping pong balls

4.  Cap Erasers (great to revive old pencils)

5.  Pennies (use with other coins to learn how to count money)

6.  Nickels

7.  Dimes

8.  Quarters

9.  Plastic spoons

10.  Binder Clips (good for finger dexterity)

11.  Puzzle pieces (then put together the puzzle)

12.  Game tokens

13.  Rubber bands

Items to Categorize by Color

14.  Guitar picks

15.  Golf balls (they come in white, pink, yellow and orange)

16.  Crayons

17.  Playing cards (sort by color or suit)

18.  Marbles (sort by shade/color)

19.  Plastic eggs (sort by color or size)

20.  Wooden Beads  (can also be used for threading)

21.  Assorted Pom Poms

22.  Match box cars

23.  Spools of Thread

24.  Barbie shoes

25.  Glow Sticks (these are great to wear as bracelets too)

26.  Mini erasers

27.  Socks (just have each child bring in 4 mismatched socks)

28.  Rubber bracelets or rings

Items to Sort & Measure for Height/Length

Grab a ruler and have the kids take measurements while they sort these items.  You can also have them arrange each item from shortest to longest once they are measured.

29.  Barettes (sort by color or length)

30.  Bookmarks

31.  Old keys

32.  Golf tees

Sort by Type

There will be a variety of ways to sort the following items.  Sort animals by habitat, continent, etc.  Batteries can be sorted by type of size, stickers can be sorted by person/place/thing or have the kids come up with their own groupings.

33.  Backpack clip toys or animals

34.  Happy Meal toys

35.  Tattoos

36.  Small Maze Puzzles (by shape or color)

37.  Plastic animal figurines (by animal)

38.  Stickers

39.  Postage stamps (by picture, face value, etc)

40.  Cookie cutters

41.  Trading cards

42.  Shrinky dinks or charms

43.  Batteries

44.  Pieces from board games

Some of our nature items would also fit in this category such as rocks, seashells, pinecones and flowers.  They are all listed below under natural materials.

Such a fun idea - compare popcorn both unpopped & popped!

Learn more about Popcorn Math & Science with this fun activity

Items that Teach Volume/Area

I love this type of item -- things that change the space they take up depending on how they are presented to the kids.  These are pefect for a math/science discussion!

45.  Paper or Plastic Cups (stacked one inside the other and stacked as a pyramid)

46.  100 millileters of a liquid (look at it in a cup and then pour it out on a cookie sheet or pie plate to discuss area)

47.  Balloons (both blown up and flat)

48.  Popcorn kernels (unpopped and popped)

Items to Craft with after you Count

So many fun craft projects can be done with these materials so have the kids count and then craft!

49.  Buttons

50.  Mini play dough containers

51.  Pipe cleaners

52.  Paint Brushes

53.  Popsicle Sticks

54.  Mini Duct Tape

55.  Q-tips (then use them to paint)

56.  Markers

57.  Self-ink Stamps

58.  Plastic beads (make a necklace)

59.  Rainbow loom bands (make a bracelet)

60.  Little Notebooks (use for drawing, tracing or even graphing the 100 items)

61.  Glue sticks 

62.  Cotton balls

If you use mini-marshmallows and toothpicks for your 100's jar, you can then pair them to create constellations for science exploration!

Items that Combine with Science & Engineering for Kids

Super items to use for counting and then experimenting!

63.  Mentos (count and then use them to make volcanoes)

64.  Toothpicks (combine with mini-marshmallows to make constellations)

65.  Sugar Cubes  (yep, the still sell these at grocery stores and you can use them to build too!)

66.  Legos (then race to see who can stack them the quickest)

67.  Blocks (then see who can construct a bridge or the tallest building)

Have a stacking challenge with any of the next three iems --

68.  Checkers

69.  Poker chips

70.  Dice

Food Items to use for 100 Days Snack

A very popular activity is creating a snack mix on the 100th Day so here's a few things the kids might want to eat together --

71.  Pretzels

72.  Marshmallows or mini-marshmallows

73.  Fruit snack packets

74.  Cereal

75.  Dried pasta

76.  Grains of rice (dry and cooked for science)

77.  Jelly beans

78.  Clementine oranges

79.  Mini boxes of raisins

80.  Hershey Kisses

81.  Candy hearts

82.  Grapes

83.  Tea bags

84.  Baby carrots

85.  Cheese sticks

86.  Goldfish crackers

87.  Oyster crackers

88.  Chocolate chips

89.  Cookies

90.  Tic tacs

91.  Gumballs

92.  Sticks of gum

93.  Baby pickles

And don't forget the popcorn from above too!

Natural items to count, sort and explore

I would suggest having a Magnifying Glass handy with these items so the kids can explore them further.

94.  Acorns

95.  Pinecones

96.  Leaves

97.  Plant seeds

98.  Rocks (use with shells to compare area)

99.  Sea shells

100.  Flowers (real or plastic)

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