Hands-On Maths Lessons

Hi there!

Chantelle from Miss Jacobs Little Learners here! :)

Mathematics is one of my favourite subjects to teach due to its hands-on nature and all the fun lessons I get to plan and teach. So today, I thought I would share some maths lesson ideas that you can adopt into your classroom to get your little ones engaged in their learning.

Number - Partners to 10

A fun way to teach partners to 10 is to use some hoola hoops and small bean bags. Line the children up into teams of 5-6 in each team. Place one hoola hoop in front of each team and give the first child 10 bean bags. They are required to toss all the bean bags (one at a time) into the hoop. Once they are done, they then record how many they got into the hoop and how many that landed outside the hoop. This is their partners to 10 fact! Once you play a few rounds, bring the children together to discuss and share their findings. You can create an anchor chart to put up on your maths wall so make sure you take some photos!

This can be used as an addition or takeaway lesson as well.

For an extension, you can get the kids to work on partners to 20 and use 20 small bean bags instead of 10.

Number - Multiplication/Division

When introducing multiplication or division I like to use the children themselves to help demonstrate putting things into 'groups'. It just gives them a more authentic experience. In this example we then went on to count by twos to see how many children there were altogether. (4 groups of 2  or 4 X 2)

We also used teddies to demonstrate 3 groups of 7 (3 X 7).

Number - Early Counting

Give your students lots of experience using objects to encourage one to one correspondence in the early years. Unifix Cubes, Teddies, Counters, Animal Counters etc. You can even get the children to record the numbers using post-it-notes. Matching the digit with the collection of objects is a vital skill for your little ones to learn in Foundation / Grade Prep.

Time - Human Clock

Teaching time? Why not create a human clock! 

Use your students to be the numbers and hands. (I like to choose a tall student for the minute hand and a shorter one for the hour hand!) 

Give the children some different times to make and let them go for it! 

This activity can be used from Foundation for teaching basic clock features all the way up to Years 2 or 3 when teaching about quarter past or quarter to etc.

Measurement - Area

Area is so fun! Whether it's a Grade Prep (Foundation) lesson or a Grade 3/4 lesson, get the kids up and about measuring things in the classroom rather than just squares on worksheets!

Trace around a student and fill their body using a variety of objects from the classroom.

Measuring the area of a foot using play dough. (Foundation / Grade Prep)

This Year 3 student is measuring the area of the window using post-its notes!

Measurement - Mass

These children have created their own balance scales using objects around the room. What a great way to reinforce the concepts of 'heavier' and 'lighter'. You can really get lots of authentic mathematical language out of this activity whilst having a lot of fun!!

These children are enjoying weighing objects around the room using scales to explore mass.

Measurement - Length

Measuring length is another mathematics topic which allows students to move around the room rather than stay put on their desks with a pen and pencil. During the early stages of this topic, children are required to use informal units of measure such as hand spans or objects around the room rather than formal units like a ruler.

Its often great to integrate your current topic when teaching measurement. Eg, If learning about Bugs, you could create your own worms using play dough or paper for the children to measure. Who has the longest worm in the grade? Learning about the Zoo? Why not create some snakes? How about dinosaurs? This child is using dinosaur footprints to measure the length of the room. How gorgeous!

Need some more ideas and resources???

I have created this Length Measurement unit suitable for Foundation to Grade 1 which includes a series of hands-on measurement lessons with stop by step lesson plans, warm up games, assessment tasks and rubrics. You can find it here in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store, Miss Jacobs Little Learners. 

What are your favourite hands-on maths lessons??