At a Glance
This Thanksgiving math center has your little learners pull a pumpkin card showing an addition sentence within 10, then build each part with counters on the cornucopia ten frame. Aimed at kindergarten and first grade, it develops addition within 10, part-part-whole thinking and counting on.
Six pumpkins plus three more… how full is that cornucopia now? This fill the cornucopia addition game is a super way for your little learners to start visualizing addition.
In the pack, there’s a cornucopia mat with a ten frame plus twenty pumpkin addition cards.
Each pumpkin card has a number sentence like 5 + 2 or 3 + 1. Children pick a pumpkin, build the first number on the ten frame, add the second number, then count up the total. It’s the natural next step from our fill the cornucopia counting game.
If your kiddos already brewed up some math with our fill the cauldron adding game, this one works exactly the same way.
So why not grab these Thanksgiving 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 fill that horn!
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 lots 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.
These 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:
- Addition within 10 – reading a number sentence, building both parts and finding the total
- Part-part-whole understanding – seeing that two smaller amounts join together to make a bigger one, which lays the groundwork for number bonds and subtraction
- Counting on – starting from the first number instead of counting everything from one
- Symbol recognition – understanding what the plus and equals signs are asking them to do
- Number recognition – reading the numerals on each pumpkin card before they start building
- Subitizing – using the ten frame’s rows of five to recognize totals at a glance, so a full top row and two more instantly reads as seven
- One-to-one correspondence – placing and counting each counter exactly once
- Fine motor skills – picking up small counters and placing them neatly in each square is great pincer grasp practice
How To Prepare This Thanksgiving Themed Math Center
This one’s pretty straightforward!
First you’re going to want to download the ten frame addition 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 cornucopia base page you can cut out or leave as it is (print as many of these as you need) and then there’s the pumpkins with the addition sentences on them.
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 dry-erase marker marker, spread the pumpkins out on a table and see if your children can place the correct amount onto the horns!
Get Even More Out of This Cornucopia Adding Game
Here’s a few ways you could use it:
Pick From the Pumpkin Patch
Before you play, scatter the pumpkin cards around the room or across the yard to make a pumpkin patch. Children head out to “pick” one, bring it back to the cornucopia and build the sum before going out for another. It’s a great way to add some movement to your math lesson.
Pumpkin Twins
Lay the cards face down and play a memory game with a twist. Instead of matching identical cards, children look for two pumpkins with the same total, like 2 + 2 and 3 + 1. They can build both on the ten frame to check. It shows that one number can be made in lots of different ways.
Flip It Around
After building a sum, ask children to swap the numbers over and build it again. Does 5 + 2 make the same as 2 + 5? Seeing that the total stays the same whichever way round you add is a lovely lightbulb moment. For first graders ready to take it onto paper, the fact family worksheet maker lets you create matching practice in a couple of clicks.
All the Ways to Fill It
Pick a target number, say 8, and see how many different pumpkin sums children can build that make it. You could even start using more than two colors of counters, and line up their answers on the table to compare. If you want to record their discoveries, the part-whole worksheet maker turns them into number bond sheets in whatever range you’re working in.
Celebrate National Pumpkin Day
National Pumpkin Day falls on October 26th, so it’s a perfect excuse to bring the cornucopia out a little early. Pair the game with a real pumpkin and let your kiddos guess how many seeds are inside before you scoop it out. Then count them together in groups of ten. You’ll find more days like this on our Special Day Calendar.
However your little ones fill their cornucopia, I hope it adds a bit of harvest fun to your math corner, and there are plenty more Thanksgiving math activities to explore.
Enjoy and let’s nurture those neurons!
