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Monday, October 13, 2014

Pumpkin Math Fun!

It's pumpkin time!
There are so many fun and educational activities to do with a pumpkin theme!  Have you started to 'dig in' yet?!
My kinders will be 'carving into' our pumpkin unit in the next few weeks, but I wanted to share a fun pumpkin themed math pack I am putting on sale this week for Markdown Monday!
I used it last year and have some pictures to share of the fun we had!

Last year we were just beginning our numbers/counting unit so I wanted a simple math center for my kinders to practice counting/identifying numbers.  I made these pumpkin mats that had the numbers 0-5 and a set with 5-10 so that they could practice making 'towers'

I had brought in some Legos my sons had at home for my kinders to use, and I also put out connecting cubes for them to use.  I had printed the mats front/back- it helped conserve my cardstock/laminate supply!  After they built it on one side they could flip and try the other side. 


The following week I put it out again, but this time with a set of dice.  They would roll the dice and then build a tower with that many blocks and cover the pumpkin with that number.  I did have to put a small sticker on the '6' and replace it with '0' for the 0-5 mat.  They would roll/build until all the pumpkins were covered!

Our PTA sponsors a pumpkin trip each year and in addition to each child receiving a pumpkin, the class gets one too!  We cut it up and find the 'parts' as well as collect the seeds.  We count them, use them for math, use some for our labeling project and then I take home the rest to roast so they can taste them!  

For the activity below we used real seeds, but I included paper seeds in the pack for classes that don't have seeds to use and/or for classes where someone might be allergic to seeds/pumpkin (there is a kindergartener this year with a pumpkin/squash allergy in our building).


There are large pumpkins to use for this or you can re-use the pumpkin mats from the towers!


Last year we started interactive notebooks so this was an entry in our 'math' section.
If you don't have an interactive notebook you can simply have students glue the tab to a blank piece of paper!



If you are doing interactive notebooks in your classroom, I have more pumpkin interactive notebook fun in this pack:

I wanted to assess how well my students understood counting and writing numbers, so I had them complete this printable.  I then used it to see who needed more work with counting, writing numbers, etc.

A few of my first grade colleagues saw the pumpkin fun in action and mentioned how they were reviewing addition/subtraction, so I added some number sentence cards to the pack!  It is great review for firsties and a fun challenge for some kinders that are ready!

They also used the pumpkin number cards and seeds to focus on one number at a time and show all the different ways the number can be composed! 


After my class had so much fun with this pack, I put it all together and included a photo instruction page to make it easier to follow: 

I chose to print/use all the pieces in color, but I know some teachers are limited in how much color printing they can do, so I also included the b&w version for the mats, number cards and seeds!

This pumpkin numbers pack is normally $4, but will be 50% off all week as part of Kelly & Kim's Kindergarten Kreations Monday Markdown Linky!
Click this image to find more deal for the week:

I hope you have a delicious week of fun and learning!
Until next post,
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