Differentiated Spring Addition & Subtraction Around the Room Activity and Center

Lessons for Little Ones by Tina O'Block

11 years ago

Differentiated Addition & Subtraction Practice

This activity was created to address 2 issues I was having with my kinders – restlessness (spring fever) and differing ability levels with addition and subtraction. This differentiated addition and subtraction to 10 activity for kindergarten helps students practice important math skills while getting up and moving around the classroom.

Making it an around-the-room or SCOOT activity allowed my students to get up out of their seats and “buzz” around to find the different cards, which not only made it more fun for them but also helped with their increased energy.

Differentiating both the cards and the recording pages allowed me to have meaningful math practice for all of my students.

I not only use this activity during my math groups, but also as a math center and extra take-home practice. Here are some pictures and more detailed explanations of how we use the differentiated bee cards and pages.

Around the Room Addition to 10 Practice

We practice addition in several ways:

The first set of cards has bees in their hives and shows a visual representation of the addition problems. I hide the cards around the room.

Students in this group visit each card, count and add the bees, and write the addition equation in the appropriate space on their recording page.

Differentiated addition practice, around the room (SCOOT)

The second set of cards has bees holding a sign which shows the addition equation, for example, 4 + 2. I also hide these around the room.

This group of students visits each card and colors honeycombs on their recording sheets to assist them in solving and writing the addition equation.

My third set of students also uses the bee equation cards, but they are able to solve the equations without the use of visuals, so they use recording sheets that require them to write and solve the addition equations only.

Around the Room Subtraction to 10 Practice

We practice subtraction in several ways:

The subtraction cards each have a bee holding a sign that shows a subtraction equation. I hide these cards around the room for each group.

My first & second groups of students visit each card and cross out the correct number of honeycombs on their recording pages to assist them in solving and writing the subtraction equation.

My third group of students does not require any visual aids to solve the subtraction equations, so their recording pages just have spaces for them to write and solve the subtraction equations.

Addition to 10, Subtraction to 10 Center Activity

I also made this activity into a learning center by placing the cards and recording pages in a container and allowing students to choose cards. A decorative bag to hold the cards can also be made by painting a piece of bubble wrap yellow and pressing it onto a brown paper bag to resemble a hive or honeycomb (sorry, I don’t have a picture of this).

I provide pieces of Honeycomb cereal for the students to use as counters, which is a great incentive for them because they get to eat the cereal after their page is completed.