Hands-On Addition Activities

We have just begun our second week of addition in my class!  This is one of my favorite things to teach in math but, as any kindergarten teacher knows, it is far from easy.  These little ones just have such a hard time fully comprehending the concept.  So, to make it a little easier, I have found and created some activities that get the kiddoes actively engaged in hands-on addition.  Some of these are tried and true, and some I have just started doing this year.  Here are some of my favorites. . .

This is one of my students' absolute faves! The students get to roll 2 dice, 1 for the number of top teeth (the first addend) and the other for the bottom teeth (the second addend).  They then make an addition equation and write it on the bear's belly.  I put the bears in plastic page protectors so they can use dry erase markers to write the equations.  I also made a recording sheet for students to keep track of their equations and to have a product for feedback and to take home.  On the recording sheet they can draw the teeth in the mouths and then compose the equation.  This has worked great both as a whole group activity where I roll the dice and also as a small group activity during my math daily 5 rotations.

Here are some math journaling activities I am using this week during my math daily 5 small groups.  I am giving students some double-sided tokens to help them come up with the different groupings for the addends if they need it.  Each student gets one of the blocks of empty equations and glues it into their math journal.  Then they see if they can discover all of ways to make the given sum.  I have been really impressed with how well they have been able to do this so far!

I got the idea for this off of Pinterest. However, I again wanted to have a recording sheet for feedback and so they had a product to take home.  This activity works best for teaching different ways to make a sum.  Start out by giving students a predetermined number of double-sided tokens and the correlating recording sheet for that sum.  I made a sheet for each sum 6-10 and have been doing one sum a day.  The students toss the tokens and see how many land on red versus yellow sides.  The red-sided tokens go on one side of the ladybug and will be the first addend while the yellow-sided tokens will go on the other side of the ladybug and be the second addend.  They then create the equation at the bottom of the sheet.  I have again been putting the ladybug papers in a plastic page protector and letting them use dry erase markers to write the equations.  Then they can record the equation on the recording sheet.  Every time the students come up with a new way to create the sum, it becomes a row heading on the graph.  Each time the tokens land to make an equation they already have a heading for on their graph, they can color in a spot on the graph next to it and track how many times the tokens land a certain way.  I love when activities tie in more than one concept and get a lot of bang for their buck.  This one gets in graphing on top of addition and (depending on how much you want to incorporate into it) you could even bring in probability by looking at which configurations the tokens land in most often.  So far I have had this as a small group activity, but I could see it working in a whole group setting as well.

Years ago when one of our kindergarten teachers retired she left tons of these bottle caps with numbers written on them.  I figured she used them for number recognition activities and thought they might come in handy some day, so I put them in my closet and forgot about them.  Then a few weeks ago I was trying to find some manipulatives for addition and came across them again. . . this is the outcome.  Pretty simple; the kids pull 2 bottle caps out of a container and find the sum.  Of course, I made a recording sheet so they could log the equations they come up with.  My students have enjoyed this far more than I anticipated : )

Dice are such an easy way for students to practice adding.  I have been doing this for years and love it!  I put this dice sheet in plastic page protectors (in case you haven't noticed yet, I LOVE plastic page protectors!...my kids call it "magic paper")  and have the kids write with dry erase markers.  I usually do this whole group and roll gigantic dice.  The kids draw dots on their paper to match the roll and use each die as an addend to create an equation.  Sadly, I have not created a recording sheet for this yet.  Maybe it will come soon : )  This is such a fun way to practice addition though!

This is almost exactly like the dice activity except it uses dominoes.  I have created a recording sheet for this one though.  I usually have this set up as a small group activity.  

Here is another activity that brings in other math concepts.  I give the students a basket full of shape patterning blocks and this 2-sided sheet.  The front side of the sheet has equations where shapes are the addends.  They have to count the number of corners/vertices for each shape and find the sum of the vertices.  On the back of the sheet they can choose shapes to create their own vertices addition equations.  I have them trace the shape blocks into the empty addend spaces.  I have been assigning this as a small group activity and my kids have done awesome with it!

Okay, so these are my favorite hands-on addition activities.  Let me know what other ways you have come up with to teach addition to your kindergarteners or little ones.  Happy Adding!