First Grade Math Activities
First grade is a year of firsts: your child's first full day of school, the first time she'll write a small story herself, and the first time she'll read a complete book cover to cover. We've got dozens of wacky reading and math activities, cool science experiments, and indoor and outdoor games to keep the learning fun.
Make a Sweet Symmetry Treat
In first grade, students are introduced to many new math concepts, including the concept of symmetry. Here’s a fun way to explore symmetry that will leave your child with a sweet symmetrical treat!
Sandbox Math Sticks
One of the goals for first graders is to memorize basic addition and subtraction math facts by the end of the year. Practice in the sandbox with this fun outdoor math activity!
Seventeen: A Math-Builder Card Game
Your kid probably knows that two plus two equals four. But what does it take to get to seventeen? Try this card game to explore all the possibilities, build math fact skills, and, more importantly from a kid-perspective, have a great time while you're at it!
Group It!: A Skip Counting Activity
Counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s may not sound like much fun. But using "skip counting" with real objects you find or make at home is a different story...it can be hours of entertainment. Here's a hands-on activity to touch and move real stuff while building abstract reasoning...paint, shoes, and coins ...
Play Placemat Place Value
With a little help from grownups, almost anything can equal math discovery for kids. Take ordinary drinking straws, for example: fun for drinking juice and even for spitballs when you're not looking, but also fabulous for learning math.
Take a Bug Expedition!
When it comes to kids and bugs, there's some kind of magnetic attraction. Want to take advantage of that fact while boosting math and science knowledge at the same time? Take the learning outdoors!
Make a Patriotic Pinwheel
This hands-on activity uses just a few ordinary supplies to create an extra-fun Fourth of July craft. You and your child can celebrate our nation's heritage while also boosting skills in geometric thinking. And while you're at it, you'll even demonstrate a little wind power!
Make a Clock!
You thought this day would never come, but guess what, it's time! Time for your child to learn to TELL time, that is. Mastering this skill can seem hard at first, but hands-on practice helps. Here's a fun at-home activity that lets kids make a clock of their own.
Take a Shape Safari!
Forget a jeep in Africa. You can head out for a safari right in your own neighborhood. Instead of hunting lions and tigers, you'll troll for circles and triangles. Why? Because shapes are at the heart of the first grade math and writing curriculum. Plus, a hunt through the backyard is just plain ...
Bounce that Ball: Learn Math While Doing Sports
With warm weather finally here, who wants to sit inside to practice graphing? Head out to the driveway, ball in hand, for a bouncing challenge. Then use those results to make a colorful graph that lets your child compare her results to those of the challenger (you!)
