Math Center Activities for Kindergarten
Math centers in the kindergarten classroom are a useful way for students to experience hands-on learning. The math center, along with other centers, allows the teacher to work with small groups or individuals, making one-on-one teaching easier to facilitate in large classes. Activities that involve counting and simple addition and subtraction can help teach young children math principles.
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Math Tubs
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At this math center, students can practice writing numerals using the materials provided in a tub or plastic bucket. Materials can include pencils, crayons, simple worksheets, number squares or blank index cards.
Addition Cards
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Addition cards, like flash cards, make age-appropriate addition problems engaging for students. Kelly's Kindergarten website suggests using addition cards in conjunction with a Play-Doh center containing cookie cutters shaped like numbers. Laminate the addition cards and instruct students to cut out the correct answer using the cookie cutters and Play-Doh. The laminated addition cards will make cleanup easy.
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Pasta
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The 2006 CORE Academic Participants gave the idea for the pasta activity for math centers. The teacher brings in two bags of large pasta (for example, rigotoni and bow tie). Mix the contents of both bags into a large bowl. Instruct students to take out a handful and count how many of each kind of pasta they have. Then, have them add up the total of each kind to find out how many pieces they have altogether.
Pot O' Gold
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This is a fun activity to do around St. Patrick's Day. Have a pot of gold with a number written on the pot. You can use a simple bucket painted gold for this. Then have students put that many pieces of gold coins (the number written on the pot) into the pot.
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References
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