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Get up and jump into some early addition and subtraction practice. We promise that this fun activity and craft will get your kids up and moving and away from a screen while building fundamental math skills. We also love that this activity involves lots of counting to build number sequence learning. Sequence learning teaches children that numbers follow a certain order. It all sounds pretty cool, right? Well hop to it and read on for the instructions!
Lily Pad Hopscotch
If the weather permits hopscotch is a great way to move around and enjoy the outdoors. Once someone reaches ten go back the other way and practice counting down. Whoever reaches 10 and makes it back to 1 first wins.
Materials:
- Chalk
- Dice
Instructions:
- Step 1 – Start by drawing 10 lily pads
- Step 2 – Write the number 1-10 on each Lily pads
- Step 3 – Roll the dice and leap to the number
Tips:
- Make up to 20 spots or more for older kids that want to count higher.
- If the kids are too young to write the number by themselves have trace the number after you have written it
- Have each kid shout the numbers as they jump from spot to spot
Lily Pad Hopscotch (Indoors)
If it’s raining or snowing, we love that this activity can be moved indoors. This version is the same protocol as the hopscotch game above except the materials that you will need are different. Cut the lily pads from cardstock or construction paper and then add the numbers on each lily pad. The final step is to tape the lily pads to the floor.
Materials:
- Green felt
- Cardstock or construction papers
- Scissors
- Markers
- Dice
- Stickers (optional)
- Tape
Tip:
- Place stickers on each Lily pad to correspond to the number this teaches subitizing. Subitizing is the ability to recognize a group without counting
Tabletop Lily Pad
Another way to make this activity suitable for inside is to make it a board game!
Materials
- Green cardstock or construction paper
- Foam
- Scissors
- Markers
- Glue
- Googly Eyes
- Dice
Instructions:
- Step 1- Cut lily pads and write down the numbers
- Step 2- Glue the lily pads down to your construction paper or cardstock to create a number line
- Step 3- Roll the dices and move that amount of lily pads on the number line
Tip:
- Use two dice to add as you move up the number line. Once you reach the tenth lily pad roll again and subtract the two numbers on the dice and move back down the number line.
Share With Us!
There is so much potential for memorable creations from these activities, we hope you will share some of them with us! Snap a photo of the fun your child had and post it on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #mothergooseclub.
