This post may contain Affiliate links. More information here.
It’s the Spring Break season and so many people are taking trips to distant destinations. That’s what makes this airplane and cloud math activity perfect for young learners. It combines learning with things that interest a lot of children.
Materials needed:
Counting Clouds Activity Mat
10 cotton balls
Laminator (if desired)
Instructions:
- Print the Counting Clouds Activity Mat printable. (Printing
in “high quality” is suggested so that the colors are vibrant.) - Laminate, if desired. This will ensure the activity mat can be used by multiple children or even annually during certain thematic units.
- Cut out the cloud number cards.
Prepare an invitation to learn for children by setting up the activity on a tray or cookie sheet. I’ve found this to be an excellent way to encourage young learners to become interested in an activity. Cookie sheets can assist in keeping activity pieces together in one place. (You can find affordable cookie sheets at your local dollar store.) Set the scene further by placing some plastic airplanes around the trays.
Activity Objectives:
This activity teaches young learners one-to-one correspondence, which is the ability to assign one number to each individual item. With this skill, children understand that each number represents a corresponding number of items.
To introduce this activity, you can encourage children to draw a number card and place the corresponding number of clouds in the sky. Once completed, the “clouds” can be counted to ensure accuracy.
You can supplement this activity with books about clouds and airplanes for kids. There are many fun books that can be used to supplement this activity. Here are some of our favorites:
There are also several other activities that can be done to expand on this one. Some of them are:
Let children create their own cloud book like this one.
Create puffy paint clouds using this tutorial.
Lay on a blanket and watch the shapes the clouds create.
Make a rain cloud in a jar.
Create stories based on what you see in the clouds.
Practice addition and subtraction with this passenger math activity.
Practice addition and subtraction with this passenger math activity.
Click the link below to download
