Monster Math

I hate having students memorize math facts.  I hated having to memorize math facts.  Let's face it, though, committing the basic facts to memory helps so much further down the road when one needs to do more difficult math.

This Halloween season, I decided to put together a little math game to help Pumpkin and Little Dude memorize some of their facts.  I found the best graphics of monsters - some of the best graphic artists are on etsy - and made up a story to make the game fun.  

You can find it on Teachers Pay Teachers by clicking the link here.  It's called "Don't Scare the Monster" and it features adorable monsters and delicious looking cupcakes.  

Pumpkin the Teacher

While sitting in our new "forest," the kids imagined they were traveling through the monster's forest to get to a wonderful bakery on the other side  They won cupcakes to win the game but had to be careful not to wake up the monsters.  [Blame the concept on my having spent four years living in Germany, which tends to inspire stories of forests and sweets.]  

What a great way to have both Pumpkin and Little Dude playing together.  Pumpkin, who is working on her fluency with addition, showed Little Dude the concept of "counting up" on your fingers to get an answer.  He was tickled to work with Pumpkin, who is the expert on addition.  

If stuck, they were able to use the addition control card, which is the typical Montessori control chart.  Students use their fingers to trace where the addends meet to locate the sum.

A friendly monster

Sitting in our "forest"

Little Dude Wins a Cupcake!

Pumpkin's Cupcake

Little Dude won the first cupcake! But Pumpkin wasn't far behind.  They loved their cupcakes and were surprised to make friends with some of the sweet monsters along the way.  It was a wonderful morning spent learning while playing.

Control Chart in Foreground