Fill the Cauldron Ten Frame Addition Game (Halloween Math Center)

This fill the cauldron addition game gives your little learners a witch’s cauldron with a ten frame across the front, plus a set of potion bottles with sums to 10 to pull from and fill.

The way it works is simple. Each purple potion card carries a number sentence, and the cauldron mat has a ten frame for building it. Children pick a potion, read the sum, then count out each part into the frame and see what they end up with. It’s a natural follow on from our fill the cauldron counting game, so if your kiddos already know that one, they’ll pick this up in seconds.

So why not grab these Halloween ten frames and help nurture their little mathematical minds?

And there’s plenty more printable math activities here you may want to check out.

Time to get brewing!

A Little On Ten Frames…

Ten frames are 2 by 5 rectangular grids, in which children can draw or use objects to show numbers that are lower than or equal to 10.

Showing what the numeral actually represents in this way can be great for developing number sense and counting skills.

And because the top row holds exactly five, children start to see numbers as chunks rather than just loads of ones. Four becomes “the top row nearly full – it’s almost five.” Eight becomes “five and three.” etc.

The Early Math Collaborative at Erikson Institute describes this as conceptual subitizing, where a child sees seven on a ten frame as five and two at the same time and recognizes the whole instantly. 

Ten frames can also be a very useful tool when it comes to adding and subtracting as children physically add or remove counters. 

This Halloween ten frames are also very simple to prepare, just print off, cut out (and laminate if you want).

What Skills Can Your Children Learn And Practice?

While using this ten frame adding game, your children will have the chance to practice and develop some early math skills such as:

• Counting skills – they’ll need to count carefully as they place each counter into the frame, making sure the amount matches the potion they pulled
• One-to-one correspondence – trickier than it sounds, this is the ability to touch and count each object exactly once
• Number recognition – reading the number on the potion bottle and knowing what it stands for before they start counting
• Addition – reading a number sentence then working out what it’s asking and finding the total
• Part-part-whole understanding – seeing clearly that the two smaller amounts together make the bigger one, which helps with number bonds and subtraction
• Subitizing – the ten frame’s structure means they’ll start recognizing amounts at a glance instead of counting each square, especially once they notice a full top row always means five
• Number sense – building a mental picture of what each total actually looks like
• Symbol recognition – reading the plus and equals signs and understanding what each one is telling them to do
• Fine motor skills – picking up small counters and dropping them neatly into the frame is lovely pincer grasp practice

How To Prepare This Halloween Themed Math Center

This one’s pretty straight forward!

First you’re going to want to download the ten frame adding game by clicking on the download box at the bottom of the page.

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Once you’ve downloaded it, you’ll need to print them off onto paper or card and cut the pieces out.

There’s a cauldron base page you can cut out or leave as it is (print as many of these as you need) and then there’s 20 different addition potions.

Once they’re all cut out, I’d strongly advise laminating them to keep them looking nice and so your little learners can use a whiteboard marker on them if they want.

After that you’re all done!

Just grab some counters, or a whiteboard marker, spread the potions out on a table and see if your children can place the correct amount onto the cauldrons!

Get Even More Out of This Cauldron Addition Game

Here’s a few ways you could use it:

Fish the Potions Out of a Sensory Bin

Tip some colored rice, shredded paper or other sensory material into a tub and bury the potion bottles in it. Children dig around, pull out a potion, then take it over to the cauldron mat to fill. Adding that sensory hunt at the start  jazzes up your math center and is a proper invitation to play!

Two Ingredients, Two Colors

Use one color of counter for each part of the sum. Six orange and three green means your little ones can see that the nine is made of two chunks rather than being just one lump of nine. It pairs really well with our witch’s potion number bond worksheet if you want.

Set Up a Potion Shop

Lay the mat out as a shop counter and let one child be the witch taking orders while another places them. “I’d like a potion of two plus one, please.” The order-taker fills the frame and hands it over. Dramatic play like this is brilliant for some social and language development. And our witch’s hat craft and apprentice ID badges could be awesome here!

Roll Your Own Spell

Put the potion cards away and hand over two dice instead. Children roll both, build each amount in the cauldron and find the total. What do they do if the answer is over 10? It also gets in some dice subitizing. If they enjoy that side of it, our Subitize and Solve dice game does the same job on a whiteboard or tablet and works nicely as a whole class warm-up.

Write the Spell Down

Laminate the mat and a colorful dry-erase marker turns the black part of the cauldron into a recording space. After building each sum, children write the full number sentence including the answer. If you want a paper version to send home or use for fast finishers, our ten frame addition worksheet maker will generate matching sheets in whatever number range you’re working in.

However your little ones end up filling their cauldron, I hope it brings some spooky fun to your math corner – and there’s plenty more Halloween math activities where this came from.

Enjoy and let’s nurture those neurons!