Hen and Chicks Math Activities
What you need:
Hens with chicks printouts
12 small chenille Easter chicks
or Easter candy eggs or play-dough eggs
Scissors
Glue
Skills: Number Sense, More/Less, Counting, Addition and Subtraction
What you do:
Print hens with chicks pattern on heavy printing paper. Laminate for extra strength. Fold in half to make a stand. (If laminated, you need to use an exactor knife to make a line on the back of the stand.)
Tip! Provide children with white play-dough and invite them to form some eggs. Use the eggs for the activity.
Instructions:
Write numbers or use numbers provided to label the hen with a number. Ask children to add the correct number of chicks (or eggs) to match the number on the hen. Use chenille Easter chicks or Easter candy eggs. (Children really love the little chenille chicks.)
Make up some stories to learn addition and subtraction facts:
Examples:
More / Less
One day the orange hen (give the hen a name) laid four eggs. The brown hen (give the hen a name) laid two. Which hen laid more eggs?
Addition
Two chicks from the orange hen go play with the chicks from the brown hen. How many chicks are with the brown hen now?
Subtraction
The orange hen has 5 chicks; two of them are going in the barn. How many chicks are left?
Kindergarten Common Core State Standards:
K.CC.B.4: Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality.
K.CC.C.6: Identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than, or equal to the number of objects in another group, e.g., by using matching and counting strategies.
K.OA.A.1: Represent addition and subtraction with objects, fingers, mental images, drawings, sounds (e.g., claps), acting out situations, verbal explanations, expressions, or equations.