We’re teaching addition for kindergarten by grabbing a handful of dice and spending just a few minutes a day playing games. Also, grab my other tips, ideas, and crafts for kindergarten on my page Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum.
Simple kindergarten math lays the foundation for essential mathematical concepts which children will build upon throughout their lives.
You don’t need a curriculum for math at this level.
There are some key concepts for a child to learn that they can do with just a handful of items and a few minutes playing with you every day.
Besides you want to teach math in an interactive way and make learning a game.
KINDERGARTEN MATH GAMES
First, look at some of these other fun math games for kindergarten.
Add one or two your learning day.
7 Kindergarten Math Games & Resources
Add some of these fun kindergarten math games and resources for hands-on math.
- GAME-CHANGING FUN : A hilarious game of give and take where kids develop confidence and solid math skills. Every player has fun as cards are constantly changing hands!
- EASY TO LEARN: Players look at their dealt hand for any two cards that add to 10 to make food stacks. Get stacks from other players if you have a card in your hand that makes 10 when added to the top card of an opponent's stack. Thief cards take food stacks. Trap cards stop the Thief cards. All players are actively adding and snatching. The player with the most cards wins!
- LEARNING THROUGH PLAY: ThinkFun's Zingo 1-2-3 provides a fun and engaging way for kids to develop critical skills like counting, simple addition, number sense, and word recognition
- MENTAL AGILITY ENHANCER: This game is designed to enhance mental math skills and cognitive abilities among kids aged 6 and up - a fun way to learn.
- QUALITY AND TRUST: With over 50 million games sold worldwide, ThinkFun is a global leader when it comes to brain-busting puzzles and engaging games.
- CRITICAL SKILLS DEVELOPMENT: The gameplay offers a stealth learning experience where kids can develop early math skills while having fun.
- Swat, Learn, and Win!: Kids grab a swatter, add or subtract, and swat their way to new kindergarten math skills every time they play these fast-paced math games for kids!
- Multiple Ways to Play: Designed for 1-4 players, these smart games for kids comes with many ways to play and learn—compete head-to-head, or boost with solo play!
- BUILD new elementary math skills with this strategy tile game!
- RACE to build and solve addition and subtraction equations--first one to use all their tiles wins!
- MULTIPLE ways to learn math skills, both solo or with up to 3 friends!
- ✅ Objective: Help build confidence and social skills in children but engages the entire family young and old by teaching and reinforcing basic math skills in a cool entertaining game setting. Parents and teachers will love this for beginner’s.
- ✅ How To Play: Each player selects one set of number tiles. Each toy set contains the exact same numbers. Players then connect their number tiles to form equations using operation tiles. The first player to connect all their number tiles wins!
Hidden gear mechanism automatically advances the hour hand when the minute hand is manually manipulated
Next, look at these math concepts.
You start teaching them in kindergarten but are also covered in several grades afterwards. So, focus on introduction at this level.
BASIC KINDERGARTEN MATH CONCEPTS
- Counting to 100.
- Using strategies like counting on, counting back, and using number lines to solve problems.
- Skip counting by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s.
- Counting objects in a set.
- Representing numbers with objects, tally marks, and numerals.
- Understanding the concept of “more than,” “less than,” and “equal to.”
- Recognizing Numbers 0-10.
- Associating numbers with quantities.
- Recognizing and writing numbers 0-10 from memory.
- Ordering Numbers -Placing numbers 0-10 in order from least to greatest and greatest to least.
- Understanding the concept of ordinal numbers (first, second, third, etc.).
- Comparing two numbers 0-10 to determine which is greater or less.
- Using symbols (<, >, =) to represent comparisons.
- Addition and Subtraction within 10-Solving simple addition and subtraction problems using objects, pictures, and number sentences.
- Understanding the concept of “part-part-whole” relationships.
Of course you will also introduce your child to coin recognition, simple measurement, and other math.
But today we are focusing on concepts like subtraction and addition for kindergarten
With a jar full of dice, some manipulatives like little crackers, pompoms, or coins, and some paper and markers you can teach your child many of these important concepts.
Too, you only need to spend about 15-20 minutes a day ‘playing’ games.
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ADDITION FOR KINDERGARTEN GAMES
First, I like to have a combination of dice with dots as well as those using numbers to practice with.
Then, these glow in the dark ones would also be super fun!
You could use these oversized dry erase dice for any of the games below and customize the numbers for whatever you are working on.
- Add it Up- Simply roll two dice and add the numbers together. Once this is mastered you can move on to more than, less than, and equal to. You could also have them practice subtraction this way.
Skills learned: Number recognition, writing or mental math
- Math Bingo- Use 1×1” grid paper and trace a 5×5 box, make the center square free. In the rest of the boxes write random numbers from 1-12. Give your child two dice and something small to cover the numbers. They roll both dice and either cover the number on each dice or add them together to get a higher number and cover that. They keep rolling until they get a bingo.
Skills learned: Number recognition, addition.
- Dice War- Each person gets 5 dice and each rolls one at a time,the higher number wins, the winner takes both dice and they are added to their pile until someone has all the dice. In the event the same number is rolled just roll again until there is a winner. Once your child has mastered this you can have them tell you the total of the two
MATH ADDITION FOR KINDERGARTEN
Skills learned: Number recognition, addition, comparing, more and less.
- Race to 20– Write the numbers 1-20 on 1”x1” graph paper and have your child roll one die, they then begin at one and count on using a manipulative to cover that number. For example, the first roll is a 6 they cover to that, the next is a 4 they cover the next 4 (which would be up to 10) and continue until they have added numbers up to 20.
Skills learned: Number recognition, adding, counting on.
- Fill The Cup: Provide your child with a cup, pom poms, and one or two dice. Have them roll and add the matching number of pom poms to the cup. They continue until the cup is full. You can let them add one at a time or make them add the two together first.
Skills learned: Number recognition, one-to-one correspondence, quantity.
- Roll It Write It: Have your child roll one die and then write the number as many times as you would like them to practice on wide paper. For children just beginning to write you may want to write with a highlighter and let them trace it with pencil.
Skills learned: Recognizing and writing numbers.
- Odd or Even: Have your child roll the dice and tell you if their number is odd or even.
Skills learned: Number recognition, odd/even.
- Stack it Up-Have your child practice stacking numbers 1-5 in order of greatest to least and least to greatest. An alternative play to this is giving them a handful of dice and having them sort and stack all odd or all even numbers.
Skills learned: Number recognition, order.
