Table of contents for Cave Craft & Learning Games
Last week I shared the bear cave craft and alphabet activities we did for our forest theme. We also used the bear cave for a couple of math activities.
Bear Counting Game
We started with our bear cave, a number cube, and small bears. We had some gummy bears, so we used those. You could also use small bear figures or teddy grahams.
The kids rolled the number cube and counted how many dots. Then they placed that number of bears into the cave. They continued rolling, counting and adding until they didn’t have any bears left on the plate.
They were still very engaged in the game by this point. Instead of ending the game they rolled the cube, counted, and removed that many bears from the cave. To include some math vocabulary, I gently introduced the concepts of adding, taking away, more, and less.
This game could be modified many ways to increase the level of difficulty. One idea would be to start with 10 bears in the cave. Roll the cube and remove that many bears. Then the child could identify the difference between the two numbers by counting how many bears are left inside the cave.
Bear Sorting
Tinker was intrigued by what the big kids were doing so I gave her a bowl of gummy bears and an egg tray. She immediately noticed that the gummy bears smell good, so she spent a bit of time picking them up and smelling them.
Once she was done exploring their scent, she started putting one bear in each spot on the egg tray. This is great practice for understanding one-to-one correspondence. Later when she ran out of spots on the tray she started grouping them by color. As she did I talked to her about the color of the bears and the word “same.”
As kids are ready you could also create patterns with the gummy bears.
The story we read to go along with these activities was Hibernation Station. We enjoyed the rhyming text and the chance to discuss the different animals who live in the forest. To incorporate a little math, we reread the story a second time to count how many animals were on the train.
Have you done any math activities related to bears?
This is SO cute! Thanks for linking up to Share It Saturday~ I’ll be featuring your idea this week.
Karyn recently posted..Homeschool Buyers Co-op $25 Giveaway!
Thanks so much, Karyn! I really appreciate the feature.
I love how your addition of the bear cave makes an ordinary (boring) math activity become a real adventure! Will probably do this with my grandkids! Thanks for a cute idea!
Joyce recently posted..Gone Snow Mobile-ing!
Thanks! I hope your grandkids have fun with it! There is also an ABC game that we did to go along with the bear cave. Check it out if you missed it…lots of growling bear fun!
I absolutely love this activity – and how you let it evolve and vary based on the child, their age, interest and need. I think we will definitely be doing this!
Jen Fischer recently posted..Inspired by Award Season – The Good Long Road in 2012
Thanks! As a kindergarten teacher I learned a lot about varying activities based on the abilities and interests of the kids. There is such a difference even among kids of the same age. Now at home I am learning how to vary the activities even more for my 4 littles who will be ages 1, 2, 3, and 4 (after next weekend’s birthday!). Hope you guys enjoy doing the activity!
Super cute math activities! We just yesterday, got a book from the library Teddy Bear Counting by Barbara Barbieri McGrath. Great bear math book! Thanks for sharing on the Share It Saturday linky!
Colleen
I’ve seen Teddy Bear Patterns, but not Teddy Bear Counting. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks!
This is a great activity. I think my little one would love it
Thanks! Hope you enjoy it!