Do your kids fight you when it comes time to work on math? Do they throw fits? Shut down? Focus on everything around them aside from the math work? Don't worry--you're not alone. Whether it is through frustration or boredom, many kids put up resistance when it comes to learning addition. However, you can make math both fun and educational with these hands-on addition activities. Your learning outcomes will be met while your children are enjoying math!
1. Simple Addition Flash Cards
Flashcards are a fun way to get kids engaged by making learning feel like a game. Visual learners especially love flashcards! Start simple with these printable worksheets of Addition flashcards. This free printable activity is perfect for extra practice. Print, cut out, and laminate to use for a long time to come.
Learn more: K5 Learning
2. Counting with Playdough
Get kids excited about addition with this activity from Kids Activities Blog. For this activity, you need play dough, paper, a marker, and something small to push into the playdough, like golf tees or marbles. Kids will forget they are learning addition as they play this game.
Learn more: Kids Activities
3. Pipe Cleaner Calculator
What is three beads plus four beads? Slide them together, and you get seven beads! All you need for this hands-on activity is a pipe cleaner, some pony beads, a wood bead for each end, and an eager learner! Make learning addition interactive with this fun activity.
Learn more: Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls
4. Lady Beetle Addition Activity
5. Building Block Addition Towers
Children can practice their motor skills as they also practice their mental math skills with this addition block game. Have them roll a dice and then stack that many blocks onto one another. Let them see how high they can get their towers before they topple over!
Learn more: The Kindergarten Connection
6. Animal Addition Puzzles
Children will have tons of fun with these printable puzzles. They will delight in finding the correct answer and completing their puzzles! If you laminate these puzzles after you print them out, you can use them for a long time to come. Check out Tot Schooling for more templates.
Learn more: Tot Schooling
7. Addition Jenga
Addition can be a tricky concept for kindergarteners. But if you make it a game by following the directions on how to create Addition Jenga (use sticky labels to put addition problems on each Jenga piece), your kindergarten students will soon be addition masters, and they will have fun in the process!
Learn more: Minds in Bloom
8. Beach Ball Addition
Young children like games and variety. Turn addition into a game by using different types of objects--like a beach ball! The Kindergarten Smorgasboard gives directions on multiple ways to use beach balls to teach addition (as well as other concepts you can teach using these same balls later).
Learn more: The Kindergarten Smorgasboard
9. Kindergarten Addition Worksheets
Children can practice counting, writing, and addition with these colorful worksheets. Mega Workbook offers many different worksheets to keep children engaged, including worksheets with Addition number lines and worksheets that allow children to color the objects they are adding together! Hess Un-Academy offers even more free printable worksheets, including a fun color by number addition one!
Learn more: Mega Workbook
10. Card Turnover Math Game
Turn learning into a card game. Kids turn over two cards, and the first person to add the two numbers together and say the answer gets to claim those two cards. Continue the game until they have gone through the entire deck. The child with the most cards wins! You can also use this game to teach subtraction and multiplication.
Learn more: Top Notch Teaching
11. Apple Tree Addition Game
This cute activity takes a bit of setup, but it is well worth it! The CBC Parents website gives step-by-step directions on how to create your apple tree. Children will enjoy rolling dice and then manipulating the strip at the bottom of the tree to find the correct simple addition sums on the dice.
Learn more: Parents
12. Addition Clouds
Get kids engaged with this hands-on addition activity. Cut out clouds and write addition equations on them. Then give them some finger paint and let them figure out the sums.
Learn more: Preschool Play & Learn
13. Color By Number
Children will enjoy watching their coloring pages come to life as they figure out the equations and color in this worksheet.
Learn more: The STEM Laboratory
14. Pom Pom Addition Game
Follow the link to this activity for the directions to this fun addition game. Kids will have fun rolling the dice and then finding the sum of the two.
Learn more: Simply Kinder
15. Hershey Kiss Math Memory Game
One thing every kid loves is candy. In this final activity, turn addition into a yummy game by writing addition equations and answers on the bottom of Hershey kisses. Once students find the correct answer to match with an equation, they get to keep those two pieces of candy! This is a fun game to do around Halloween or Christmas to celebrate the holidays while also learning.
Learn more: Kids Activities
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