Kindergarten - 1st Math Activities & Printables
Kindergarten – 1st Math Upgrades includes simple addition, introduction to subtraction, patterns, the concept of more and less, numbers up to 20 and beyond, introduction to money, skip-counting by 5’s and 10’s, place value, and the appearance of ordinal numbers! It may sound like a lot, but you can knock it out one at a time easy! The goal for kindergarten math is to ensure that he or she is prepared for what will come in first grade. Your child may not be ready for the concepts presented below. Don’t worry, the math upgrades are for those ready to move on. Much of the math activities below are geared for students ranging from 5-7 depending on the student.
Counting higher than 10 and being able to count backwards from 10 to 0 is a good start. As long as you slowly add more and more math concepts to the regimen is ideal. Is there a certain pace at which you should go? I would say not to move on until your child has mastered one area. For instance, if your child is still struggling with recognizing numbers 1-20, then there is no need to push for numbers 21-30. Just be patient. Some kids will soar through math concepts quickly. If that is the case, move them forward only slowing down when they need more time to master a new concept. Use these FREE KINDERGARTEN -1ST MATH UPGRADES to supplement your math curriculum!
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Ray's Math Primer Printables
Years ago when I first started homeschooling my oldest, I was on the search for free homeschool curriculum. At the time, I came across the Ray’s Math Primer. I was intrigued by its longevity. Being published in 1834, it still held its integrity as a tried and true math curriculum. After finding downloadable PDF’s, I was inspired to create some math cards to go with the book’s curriculum. Take a look for yourself at our Ray’s Math Primer Printables!
Dice Addition Worksheets
Your student will appreciate this activity sheet over a list of addition problems any day! With a pair of dice, your student will roll their addition problem. Read how we use the second worksheet to create a challenge between two mathematicians. Download your own set of Dice Addition Worksheets here!
Math Facts House
Our Math Facts House Worksheets are perfect for the student learning simple addition and subtraction math facts. There are three different versions allowing you to use them how you want to! Create a hands-on math experience with the addition of dominoes or dice. Download the Math Facts House Worksheets here!
Free Hundreds Charts
This chart is a must have when teaching beginning math skills. When my student needs help remembering how to write a number or recalling what number comes next, he refers to this chart. The 100 Chart is super handy when teaching students about skipping counting also. If we are learning how to skip count by fives, then I will have my student color in all the numbers ending in a five or zero. A visual is created for the child when coloring the numbers on the 100 Chart to represent skip counting and odd/even numbers. Check all of our Hundreds Charts here!
Place Value Activities & Printables
Teaching Place Value can be made easy with these FREE Place Value Activities & Printables! Your student will find learning this concept easy with place value challenges, hands-on activities, games, printables, and videos. Amongst these resources, you will find a set of place value worksheets, a count the beans activity, games, and more!
Counting Money Unit
The Counting Money Unit helps you to teach your child all about money. Learning the different coins by name and value is one step up in the math department. Click here or on the image to explore the FREE Money resources and ideas.
Free Time & Clock Resources
Use these FREE Time & Clock Resources to help teach your student all about analog clocks. With these resources, you can teach the parts of an analog clock along with how to tell time. In this post, you will find crafts, printables, videos, and other activities. These FREE resources will help your lessons come to life! Check out our FREE Time & Clock Resources here!
Addition & Subtraction Eggs
The Addition & Subtraction Eggs are a perfect example of hands-on math practice. This approach could also be successfully carried out with other math applications such as multiplication or division. Twelve addition card questions are hand written and kept in a tidy small bag that is stored in the egg carton. There is also a set of twelve subtraction card questions kept in a separate bag. I keep the number eggs in my cabinet and pull it out as fun practice when we need a fun math alternative.
Count & Compare cards
Homemade Count & Compare Cards are easy to make! I used leftover scraps of card stock that I had on hand. You could use index cards. For durability, laminate the cards. I took different colored circle stickers and star stickers. On each card, I used two to three different colored stickers of the same shape.
For example, on one card I may have put 5 red circles and 4 green circles. I can then ask the child, “How many green circles are there?” Then ask, “How many red circles are there?” Follow those two questions up with, “What has more? The red circles or the green circles?” This is a simple, yet effective way to introduce more and less. I can also ask, “How many circles are there altogether?” Enjoy!
Card Counting Games
Anytime your child is offered to play a game, he or she is usually going to be more enthusiastic about learning. Playing card games with your child is an awesome way to instill the skill of counting and simple addition without ever having to print out a worksheet. If you can teach them a skill without succumbing to a sheet of paper, the better. We love to play War, which helps your child understand the difference between greater and less than. The game 21 will help your child to learn addition. Uno is one of our favorites to play. I can sit with all five of our kids and play Uno. It is a family friendly learning tool that doesn’t feel like school.
Write & Wipe Addition Math Mats
This is a set of 13 Write & Wipe Addition Math Mats. Each math mat features 5 addition problems. All of the addition problems equal sums of 1-10. The math mats can be used repeatedly (especially if you have multiple children!). For more durability, print these addition math mats on card stock. Once printed, laminate them. Your child can use dry erase markers to practice these addition math facts. Download here or click on image. Happy learning!
Homemade Homeschool: Addition Cards
Homemade Homeschool addition cards are super easy to prepare. Sometimes your kid needs to take a break from worksheets and complete an activity that covers the same material, but in a way that is engaging and different than their norm! Change it up a little! Use large index cards to create these fun addition fact cards. As you can see from the pictures I choose to do this in slightly different ways depending on the child and what I wanted to accomplish.
Lego Learning: Skip Counting
Try using Legos for skip counting! It isn’t hard to do. As you can see from the photos, I used a permanent marker to write the numbers directly onto the Lego pieces. In this example, we were skip counting by 2’s up to thirty.
Fun way to practice! Try it!
Odd & Even Numbers: ODD MAN OUT
The most effective strategy I use when teaching my children about odd and even numbers is what we like to call, “Odd man out.” First, gather some kind of manipulative- crayons, beans, marshmallows, etc. To begin, I ask my child to count out 3 crayons (manipulative). Then, I ask the child to put the set of 3 into groups of 2. They quickly see that 3 does not fit into groups of 2. I tell them that the one crayon is lonely. He is the, “odd man out.” Next, I explain how 3 is an odd number because it has an odd man out.
Then, I ask my child to count out 5 of the crayons. Following the same line of questioning, I ask them to put the set of 5 crayons into groups of 2. He finds again that there is one crayon left out. That crayon is the ODD MAN OUT. We continue this over and over again with 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11. During all this time, I have written each of the numbers on a sheet of paper. Lastly, I explain how no matter how big a number is, if it ends in 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9, then it will be an odd number. Hence, it will have an ODD MAN OUT! So, the number 1,000,003 is odd because it has an odd man out… poor guy!
"ODD MAN OUT" Counting Sheets
This set of 7 counting sheets features the characters to Finding Nemo. The premise of the counting sheets is to introduce the concept of odd numbers. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 are the numbers focused on which are all odd numbers.
Let me explain how I use them. You can certainly use them as just counting sheets having your child write the number in the box or you can try the odd man out method. Tell your child to color pairs of two different colors. For example, one pair of two sharks will be green. Another pair will be red and yet another pair blue until there are no more pairs left. When there is one sea animal left alone explain that they are the odd man out. Odd numbers have one left all alone like these sea creatures. And yet another learning opportunity is to then count by twos. Start with the 1 sheet, then the 3 sheet, and so forth. Happy learning!
Odd Number Worksheet Set
This is a set of 5 worksheets focusing on odd number recognition. The first page is a printable odd number poster for your child’s reference and the other 4 sheets are meant to be a reinforcement to the ODD MAN OUT hands-on activity. Download here. Happy Learning!
Even Number Worksheet Set
This is a set of 5 worksheets focusing on even number recognition. The first page is a printable even number poster for your child’s reference and the other 4 sheets are meant to be a reinforcement. Download here. Happy Learning!
Counting By Tens Worksheet
This is a simple matching worksheet to practice matching the ten skip counting numbers to their number words. Click here to download.
Creating Patterns
Patterns are super easy and fun! For starters, don’t look at patterns as school to be tackled, but a game to play. Tell your child that you made something for them to figure out. If they can figure out your pattern than they can… play with chalk or bubbles, etc.
Before they sit down or as they sit next to you, fill in the pattern making sure to leave one to two blanks at the end. You can use crayons to create shapes or color in the whole square. Have fun with it. Be creative with your mediums. Try making a pattern with stickers or with dot markers. DOWNLOAD PATTERN SHEETS. Happy learning!
Homemade Homeschool: Lego Patterns
Teach your child patterns in a fun and playful way. Use Legos or any other manipulative to make patterns. As you can see, after creating patterns together, my daughter made a “city of pattern towers!”
Check out our other Learning with Legos activities! Happy learning!
Ordinal Number Race Day
When first teaching my child about ordinal numbers, I bring out ten Hot Wheel cars and ten index cards. First, I write 1st on one card, 2nd on another, 3rd on another, and so on until I have written all the way to 10th. Next, I tell my child that there is going to be a race. I leave it up to my child to decide what car is going to come in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.
To play along with the theme of race day, I make racing sounds and pretend to speak like an announcer, “On Your Mark. Get set. Go!” My child and I attempt to race all the cars down to the finish line. As the cars cross the finish line, I place each car on a card. The fastest car gets placed on the card that reads, “1st, First.” We do this for all ten cars until every car is sitting on an ordinal number card. We read through the cards together and practice. Happy learning!
Creation Ordinal Number Worksheet
This is a quick and easy introduction to ordinal numbers. Have the student match the words with the ordinal numbers. To guide your child, read the first ordinal number (3rd) in the right column to them. Next, ask your child what word starts with the sound, “th.” Use your finger to point to the first word at the top of the left-hand column. Does “First” begin with the sound, “th?” Walk them through each word until they find the one that starts with the “th” sound. Download here or click on the image.
2- page Creation Addition
The 2 page addition set has a total of 6 addition problems. I used these worksheets while focusing on a creation unit. It only features 3 addition problems per page. Creation related pictures make it easy for the child to count the objects one by one. Click the link or image to download.
PreSchool Prep Addition Math Facts
The Math Facts video is an easy way to introduce math facts. Oftentimes, I played it in the background while we were doing other things. I was always amazed at how kids would stop whatever it is they were doing, to watch. Great practice!
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