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This post has been co-written with Ben Wolfson, a full-time educator and assistant principal in the USA.
Summer in the kindergarten classroom is a bittersweet time of year. On the one hand, the warm weather means more time outside to explore and play, while on the other hand it means that this magical year is coming to an end and your students are thinking about summer vacation and first grade. It’s also the time to bring the ocean back to your classroom, and these fun sorting by addition up to 10 mats will keep your students engaged and practicing their math fact fluency, making them ready for next year.
The Importance of Math Fact Fluency
The ability to master addition up to 10 is a key skill for kindergarten students to have under their belts by the time summer rolls around. While this basic math fact fluency can seem trivial, it underpins several major skills later down the road: addition facts crop up in multidigit addition and even in standard algorithm multiplication. Finding addition activities for kindergarten that help your students to master their math facts will also give them the tools and confidence as they start to learn their multiplication and division facts later on in school. This sorting by addition activity is a great tool in your toolbox to help students master their addition up to 10.
Preparing Summer Sorting By Additon Mats
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Extending Sorting By Addition Mats
The concept behind these addition activities for kindergarten is simple. Print and cut up all the addition facts and give them to your students. They then place each one on the corresponding mat that has the crab bearing the correct number. As they begin to do this with ease, challenge them with some of these extension activities:
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Make it competitive – a great way to blow off some steam and have some fun with math fact fluency is to gamify the learning process. In this case, you could have students playing against each other, racing to correctly place all the equations first. If you prefer to have students challenge themselves, put a timer at the math center and have the students record how long it took them to sort the math facts correctly. They can then try to beat their best time.
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Look for reciprocal pairs – kindergarten math is all underpinned by looking for patterns, and the addition up to 10 facts contain many pairs of reciprocal numbers (e.g 3 + 4 = 7 and 4 + 3 = 7). Have students group the equations by these reciprocal pairs, and note the ones that don’t have a partner are their doubles facts.
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Create the equations – finally, as students get quick at the sorting by addition activity, you can challenge them by removing the equations and having them come up with as many different ways of making each number as possible. You can use this as an opportunity to talk about systematically finding all the solutions to a challenge (e.g. start with 0 + 3, then 1 + 2, then 2 + 1 etc).
Like this? Then you’ll love my 10 Ice Cream Themed Literacy and Math Centers. These easy-prep games will get your students working on letters, phonics, numbers and more!
Games included:
1) Ice Cream Letter Case Clipcards – match the upper and lowercase letters
2) Sight Word Scooping – find the correct lettered scoops to form the sight word on the cone
3) What’s The Letter Scoop? – pick a letter card and color it in the recording sheet; upper and lowercase provided
4) Ice Cream Code Words – set of 12 coded words provided with the decoder and answer sheet
5) Ice Cream Shop Tracing Lines – pre-writing practice of tracing the path the kids need to take to the shop
6) Banana Split Number Order – fill in one more and one less number from the one shown
7) Ice Cream Cone Shape Matching – 13 different shapes
8) Ice Cream Counting Clip Cards – count the number of scoops to 20
9) Ice Cream Ten Frame Matching – place the cherry with the correct number that matches the ten frame on the scoop
10) Popsicle Stick Number Formation Cards – can be used as flashcards or number formation activity with popsicle sticks or other manipulatives
Check it out for more ready-to-go fun!
Ocean Theme Books For Kindergarten:
Other Summer Printables You’ll Love:
1) 15 Sets of Clip Cards for Spring and Summer – Learn to count crabs, bees, flowers, etc from 1 to 10.
2) Summer Gross Motor Dice – printable dice for getting kids moving outside!
3) Ice Cream Measurement Cards – grab your rulers and learn how to measure length using ice cream cones.
4) Watermelon 4-piece Number Puzzles – works on number recognition, subitizing and counting all at once.
5) Summer Printable Worksheets Pack – 50 pages of mixed worksheets working on various literacy and match activities.
6) Pirate Alphabet Playdough Mats – Literacy and fine motor skills are developed with these colorful playdough letter mats that your students will surely treasure.
7) Count and Compare Fish – In this fun game, kids will count and compare fish in a tank and fish in a bowl to see which has a bigger number and learn how to use the symbols greater than and lesser than correctly.
8) Firefly Counting – This math activity is perfect for preschool, kindergarten, and homeschooling or for busy parents looking for something their little one can do independently.
9) Flower Measurement Cards – Kids work on math and measurement in this spring flowers-themed printable.
10) Easy Mondrian Art – My preschooler loved doing this super simple tape and chalk art activity outdoors but if you don’t have a garden, you can download the printable I made for you!
Educational Tools For Your Classroom:
Browse My Most Popular Math Printables:
1) Parking Cars Tracing Lines – More than 10 different tracing line patterns to choose from, all of which help with pencil control.
2) Scarecrow Arrange By Size – 3 different scarecrow-themed image sets that they will arrange from smallest to biggest.
3) Bumblebee Addition Game – Solve the sum and help the bee land on the correct flower!
4) Farm Shapes Mats – Use playdough, pompoms, stickers etc to learn 2D shapes.
5) Popsicle Stick Number Formation – Kids will love forming the numbers 1 to 10 when ice cream and popsicles are involved!
6) Valentines Printable Worksheets Pack – 50 pages of mixed literacy and math activities.
7) Zoo Animals Number Puzzle Strips – Complete these cute puzzles and learn the numbers 1 to 20.
8) Counting Colorful Bugs – This printable book will help kids count to 10 while also learning about color words.
9) Humpty Dumpty Numbers – In this printable game, your students will practice number recognition using 1 dice or simple addition when using 2 dice.
10) Build A Number Santa – Match the number to the correct number word, tally mark and domino to form a Santa Claus
