One More One Less Games

Giving kids a strong foundation in number sense skills can have a lasting positive impact, so it’s important to includea wide variety of number senses activities in preschool and kindergarten. Teaching one more and one less is one of the imporant number senses skills I like to weave into our everyday activities and regular instruction. In the hands-on one more one less activities article I shared some quick printable-free activities that are perfect for introducing the concept of one more and one less and practicing in small groups.

Once kids have a general awareness of one more and one less we can provide them with many opportunities to deepen their level of understanding, and of course I like to make it fun! I’ve developed an ongoing set of one more one less games to go along with different seasons and holidays throughout the year. Use them individually for table time, or set them up for kids to play over and over again during math centers.

One More One Less Games for Preschool and Kindergarten

Why One More and One Less Activities are so Important

Before I show you more about the one more one less games we play I should probably take a second to explain why we do these activities. As you know schools are expecting a deeper understanding of math concepts as kids get older. It’s isn’t enought to just be able to rote count and memorize addition facts anymore.

Instead we want kids to have the ability to quickly gather information about the relationships between numbers. We want them to understand the relative sizes of numbers in comparison to one another, and we want them to be able to articulate what they know about numbers. In general those are number senses skills, and understanding one more and one less is a small part of developing number sense.

But why preschool and kindergarten?

In the early years kids are working with small numbers. It’s easier to begin having these discussions and showing the quantities with small numbers than it is to wait to have these discussions.

A child can quite easily grasp that if she has two cookies and you have three cookies, you have one more cookie. And we can line up and compare our amounts directly to prove this…proving our findings is another important math skilll we’re working on developing!

Being able to identify one more and one less helps kids:

• Begin to develop number sense skills
• Prepare to count forward and backward from numbers other than 1
• Prepare to use a number line
• Begin to understanding the foundation for adding and subtracting

Our One More One Less Math Games Set

As I mentioned before we do a lot of concrete one more one less activities with manipulatives during whole group and small group. Then we move on to playing one more one less math games so kids can continue practicing these skills.

Here is a quick glimpse of some of the math game mats in our One More One Less Math Games set.

There are fifteen different math games that can be used throughout the year. The directions for the games are similar which makes it easier to give directions and easier for kids to remember the expectations when working independently or in math centers.

We highly recommend using manipulatives with each game so kids get the additional tactile reinforcement. It also makes it more fun!

Don’t worry. We’ve included a list of possible manipulative options for each game, and you’ll probably already have many of them on hand.

Each game also comes with a foldable number cube, but you can also cut the pieces and place them in your own reusable cube if you have those already.

We love using play dough with our one more one less math games to add another sensory element and some fine motor practice.

Each game also comes with an optional recording sheet. These can be used in a variety of ways:

• Laminate them for kids to use over and over again during centers after they’ve played the game with the main game mat.
• Send the recording sheet home as an activity to reinforce skills learned in class.
• Use the recording sheet as an assessment if required by your program.

Try a One More One Less Math Game for Free

Not sure whether these games are right for your kids? Try them first!

We’ve shared about two of the one more one less math games before.

Read about the fish one more one less math game and try it out for free.

See how we use the ladybug one more one less game and get a free copy to try for yourself.

Get the Full One More One Less Math Games Set

Here’s a look at the main components of the complete 57-page set.

 

 

What others are saying about this set:

“So easy for kids to use independently. I have been looking for activities to strengthen one more, one less.”

Grab your copy below.

Also available on Teachers Pay Teachers.