Heads vs Tails

Kids shake a group of various coins, cupped in both hands, and drop! Then, they compare heads and tails: writing fractions and coin amount. 

Fruit Snack Math

The wrapper tells you how many fruit snacks are in the bag. Estimate how many of each flavor is in your bag before opening it.

Write a fraction for each flavor. Then, graph your flavors. How did your bag compare to your peers? Do you think that the flavors are evenly distributed?

Lay your fruit snacks out an a straight line. Can you find something that is the same length? (measure)

Find a friend and compare your fruit snacks. Who had more cherry? Did you have the same amount of cherry? Compare each flavor using greater than, less than, or equal to signs.

Create a multiplication array with your fruit snacks. Then, practice division. How can you divide your snacks evenly if you shared your bag with your mom and dad?

Write addition and subtraction number sentences: What is the sum of your strawberry and grape (2+3=5)? If you ate all of your orange and lemon, how many fruit snacks would be left (12-5=7)?

Make different patterns with your colors. Did you have any difficulty because of the colors in your bag?

More fruit snack activities:
Fruit by the Foot Ruler - measure by the foot
Chopsticks! - practice place value with swedish fish
Growing Gummy Bear - grow a gummy in water and measure!
Gummy Worms - How long can a gummy worm be stretched?
Fruit Roll Up - Area/Perimeter

Dinosaur Place Value

Stomp, Hop, and Chomp from OER! Call out a number and kids reply back with sound and movements!
Stomp = Ones
Hop = Tens
For example, you say the number 29. Kids hop two times and stomp with one foot 9 times.

Once they get the hang of it, compare numbers with a dinosaur chomp! Write two numbers on the board. Kids point their body towards the number that is greater and chomp (arms extended out, clamp together).

For another educational movement activity, check out Kung Fu Punctuation!

High / Low

Work on number sense with the classic game High, Low. Select a specific range of numbers to work with, such as 1-50 (featured above). For older kids, you can include negative numbers. One child is chosen to be "it." He / she chooses a number and keeps it a secret! Peers take turns guessing the numeral. The person who is it writes the number each person guessed under high or low. They write it under high, if the guess is greater than the number. They write it under low, if the number guessed is less than their number. Whoever guesses the secret numeral first wins! 

40 > 39 > 38

Pac Man - Greater Than, Less Than

Awesome idea from The Feisty Classroom: Pac Man, Greater Than, Less Than! To turn this idea into a math station, I decided to make paper cutouts of Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man, and the ghosts. Cut the shapes out of construction paper and add googly eyes. Don't forget to give Ms. Pac Man a bow! Put numbers on your ghost and have kids compare! Pac Man prefers greater numbers. They're more filling! 

To turn this into a 2 player game, you will only need one Pac Man. Lay all the ghosts face down (no cheating!). Each player pulls a ghost from the pile and lays it down. Whoever has the greatest number gets a point. - or - You could do who ever has the smallest number gets a point, because their ghost avoided getting eaten! You Choose! The player with the most points wins! 

For more of a challenge, each time a player wins, he writes down the number on the ghost. At the end of the game both players add up all of their numbers. Then, they compare their sum. Whoever has the greatest sum wins!