Show Down: Addition Facts Card Game

While my hope is to just have fun and relax over this winter vacation, I also know that it can be good to keep school aged kids thinking at least a little about both math and reading. The best way parents can do that is by keeping the learning fun and playful. (Which does not mean worksheets.)

A few months ago, I came up with this game for Big Brother and I to play and practice math facts at the same time. It's been a big hit on weekends and vacations since then, and he's not even realizing he's building his number facts as we play.

What are number facts? Addition number facts are typically thought of as addition facts with a sum (answer) up to 20. 

The rules to our "Show Down" game are very similar to the traditional card game "War" with a few math twists. The materials are relatively simple: a deck of playing cards, a sheet of paper, and a marker or pencil. 

CVC Alphabet Cracker Activity & Snack Mat

The return to school this year is definitely taking more energy than we expected this fall. An increase in work hours for me and Big Brother kicking off kindergarten, combined with our normal, busy family routine, means it's been hard to share some of the fun after school and fall activities we've been squeezing in. But now we have a bunch of new posts lined up to share in the next week!

One thing we really enjoyed was an engaging snack that built upon the new reading skills Big Brother is quickly taking on in kindergarten: a CVC Alphabet Cracker Activity & Snack Mat.

My kiddos are huge fans of ABC crackers, we especially love the ones made by Cheez-It, although we've seen other brands at the store. 

Roll, Count, Color to 100

We've been enjoying the Cool Math Series which has been going on this month. Earlier this month we shared 4 ways to Explore Symmetry at Home. Today we're sharing a new, homemade math game: Roll, Count, Color to 100.

For a while now, Big Brother has been interested in counting to 100, and he can pretty much do it as long as the gets a little help with the "tens." I wanted him to get a sense of what the tens actually meant, so I put together this math game. 

Our Second Blogiversary!

It's hard to believe that our second blogging year has come and gone already, it definitely snuck up on us this year!

In honor of our second blogiversary, I wanted to take a few moments to celebrate some of our top posts from the past year.

Moose Muffins Math Game

This month the Virtual Book Club for Kids Author is Laura Numeroff. Last time she was the author of the month we enjoyed creating our own sibling book based on What Brothers Do Best.

Although she has a wide range of books she has written, she's best known for her "If You Give . . ." books.  One of our favorites is If You Give a Moose a Muffin. Last week Big Brother and I enjoyed reading the book and creating an extended math game.

As I've mentioned in a few other posts the last few months, recently Big Brother has been really interested in math and all things number related. 

Rhyming Fish Play with Dr. Seuss

In the last few months Big Brother has gotten really interested in Dr. Seuss books, asking to read the ones in our collection quite often. I was excited when I saw that this month's Virtual Book Club for Kids author was Dr. Seuss himself. We decided to read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish for our read this month.

The book is full of silly rhymes. As an extension I decided to play with rhymes in connection with reading the book. 

Buttons Come and Buttons Go (A Pete the Cat Game)

We were excited when we discovered that this month's Virtual Book Club for Kids author was Eric Litwin as it meant focusing on his Pete the Cat books. We discovered Pete the Cat a few years ago and love Litwin's easygoing, rhythmic style. (Scroll down to the bottom of the post for links to a few of our favorites.) The boys love his stories and I love the messages they convey about not sweating the small stuff.

Buttons Come and Buttons Go Math Game

For this month's activity we decided to focus on the book Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons. Not only does it convey a great message about not getting upset over the loss of some buttons and finding positives in the outcome, it also builds early math skills right into the storyline. We extended the book into our "Buttons Come and Buttons Go" math game.

Room on the Broom Memory Game

This month's Virtual Book Club for Kids Author is Julia Donaldson. As she is not an author we know well we were looking forward to reading some new books and discovering a new author. Which is part of the fun of the Virtual Book Club for Kids! And of course it's also always fun to see what great project and activity ideas can come from these books.

Room on the Broom Memory Game

We decided to read Room on the Broom because it's a great fit for Halloween. 

Dot Sticker Coordinates (with free printable)

Big Brother has been interested in board games for quite a while, and it's been really fun to explore different games with him. Lately he's wanted to try playing the game Battleship, but we're still finding it hard to modify that game for him to really be able to play. (It's really meant for older children.)

In the meantime, I created this Dot Sticker game which helps practice reading and using coordinates so he can work towards playing the game and also practice this math and science skill.

Pirates' Gold Number Play

We've been exploring Pirate Week here at our house. We all love pirates; in fact I realized I've never shared this picture from this past Halloween of our whole family in their pirate wear. So when Big Brother asked for a "Pirate Week" I couldn't resist.

Beyond reading some pirate books, wearing our pirate costumes, and talking like a pirate this week I wanted to create some fun learning and crafting opportunities around pirates. I've been thinking for a while about how to turn Big Brother's love of pirates into a math activity. Using some rocks, gold spray paint, and number fun here are two different activities we came up with. 

Pirates' Gold Number Play

Ocean Alphabet

As we continued with our Ocean theme this week I knew I wanted to tie in some literacy skills practice. With the warm, almost perfect, summer weather, it was also a great time to be outside and the kids were definitely interested with playing with water. That inspired the creation of our "Ocean Alphabet" activity.

Big Brother has done alphabet fishing before in our alphabet sensory bin. But this was the first time we created something outside in our actual pool. It was a huge hit with both Big Brother and Little Miss H!

Sum, Say, & Spray Math Game

Living in a rural area means we have limited access to pavement for sidewalk chalk play. So, as I've mentioned before on our facebook page when we know rainy weather is coming we use our deck. The other day we combined chalk play with some fun mathematical learning.

Our materials for the game included chalk, two dice, and a spray bottle. Big Brother loves when we find ways to use the spray bottle, so this game was right up his alley. We used our deck, but this game could also be played on the sidewalk, a basketball court, or a paved driveway. 

Using Candy Hearts for Early Math Skills (With 3 Free Printables)

We've been having a lot of fun with these early math games and activities the last week, all using candy hearts, and had to share in case a kiddo in your house gets these treats tomorrow.

Build A Monster Game

I had a busy work week with parent-teacher conferences and report cards, which meant a quiet blog week. On weeks like this we tend to focus on creating what little routine we can stick to and recreating favorite activities.

With the long week over today we played a new activity which I've been looking forward to trying out. Before Halloween I was inspired by an activity I saw over at Playdough to Plato called Roll A Skeleton. Around the same time Big Brother and I had grabbed some fun craft foam and colorful google eyes at JoAnn's on sale. I decided to make up our own roll and build game.

Alphabet Fishing Sensory Bin

Big Brother has been really enjoying a toy, magnetic wooden fishing set he was given last year for Christmas and it inspired me to create a new sensory bin for him this week.

Counting Carton

We've been a little mellow here this week as Big Brother has been under the weather. The week has consisted of watching some favorite Netflix shows, reading lots of picture books, doing puzzles, and playing with busy boxes and other quiet toys. Sometimes my biggest struggle when Big Brother is sick is keeping him mellow as he starts to feel better, he often wants to get up and run around before he's ready.

The other day I knew I would need something new, and calm, to keep him entertained. He's been really interested in counting and numbers lately so I decided to create a counting activity. I used an old egg carton, some small red stickers, card stock, and dried beans to create a "counting carton."