At a Glance
This Thanksgiving math center has your little learners pull a numbered apple card and count that many counters onto a cornucopia ten frame. Designed for preschool and kindergarten, it builds counting, number recognition, one-to-one correspondence and early subitizing. You could print and laminate several mats for a reusable fall math station a whole small group can use at once.
It’s harvest time, and this fill the cornucopia counting game lets your little learners check we have just the right amount of apples!
In the pack, there’s a cornucopia mat with a ten frame plus ten apple cards numbered 1 to 10.
Your little ones will need to pick an apple, read the number, then count that many counters onto the frame. Mini pumpkins, acorns, pom-poms, buttons – whatever manipulatives you have on hand will do the job!
If your kiddos already brewed up some math with our fill the cauldron counting game, this one works exactly the same way, so it slots straight into your fall math centers with no explaining needed.
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 counting game, your children will have the chance to practice and develop some early math skills such as:
- Counting skills – counting carefully as each counter goes in, and checking the total matches the apple they picked
- One-to-one correspondence – touching and counting each counter exactly once
- Number recognition – reading the numeral on the apple card and knowing what it stands for before they start
- Cardinality – understanding that the last number they say tells them how many are in the cornucopia altogether
- Subitizing – with practice, recognizing amounts on the ten frame at a glance instead of counting every square
- Early math language – talking about full, empty, more and fewer as the frame fills up
- Fine motor skills – picking up small counters and placing them inside each square is great pincer grasp practice
- Hand-eye coordination – lining the counters up neatly within the frame
How To Prepare This Thanksgiving Themed Math Center
This one’s pretty straightforward!
First you’re going to want to download the ten frame counting 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 apples with the numbers 1-10 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 apples out on a table and see if your children can place the correct amount onto the horns!
Get Even More Out of This Cornucopia Counting Game
Here’s a few ways you could use it:
Fish the Apples Out of a Sensory Bin
Tip some colored rice, shredded paper or other sensory material into a tub and bury the apples in it. Children dig around, pull one out, then take it over to the cornucopia mat to fill. Adding that sensory hunt at the start jazzes up your math center and is a proper invitation to play!
Go on a Harvest Hunt
Before you play, head outside and collect your own counters. Acorns, small pinecones, pebbles and little leaves all make lovely natural loose parts, and filling the cornucopia with things they’ve gathered themselves makes it feel like a real harvest. Keep an eye on small items with younger children though.
Tong Harvest
Put a pair of kitchen tongs, tweezers or a clothespin next to the mat and ask your little ones to move every counter with it, no fingers allowed. It slows the counting down nicely and gives those hand muscles a proper workout.
Thankful Counters
This is a lovely one for a little circle time math. Take it in turns and each time a child adds a counter, they share one thing they’re thankful for.
Empty the Cornucopia
Flip the game around. Start with a full frame, then take turns rolling a die and removing that many counters. The first to empty their cornucopia wins, and suddenly your kiddos are doing early subtraction without realizing it. If dice games go down well, our turkey roll and color worksheets keep the rolling going on paper.
Apple Orchard Line-Up
Lay the apple cards out in order from 1 to 10 to make a little number line. Then, while your child closes their eyes, sneak one apple away. Which one went missing?
How Many More to Fill It?
Once the counters are in, ask how many empty squares are left. Six pumpkins in means four more to fill it up, and children start to spot the number bonds that make ten. For older kindergarteners ready to write it down, the ten frame addition worksheet maker lets you create matching practice sheets in a couple of clicks.
Celebrate World Food Day
World Food Day falls on October 16th each year, which is a perfect excuse to bring the cornucopia out a little early. You could chat about where different foods come from and which ones grow on trees, under the ground or on a plant. You can find more days like this on our Special Day Calendar.
However your little ones fill their cornucopia, I hope it brings a bit of harvest fun to your math corner, and there are plenty more Thanksgiving math activities where this came from.
Enjoy and let’s nurture those neurons!
