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Do you ever feel stuck in a rut when it comes to coming up with math activities? Providing different types of practice with early kindergarten skills is important, but it isn’t always easy to find activities that will keep students’ interest.
One way that I like to mix up math practice is by integrating math work into a variety of activity types. If you’ve been around here for a while, you also know that I love finding creative ways to integrate fine motor work into classroom activities, too. This is how I discovered that cotton swab dabbing pages can be great for occasional math practice!
Today I’m going to share ways to use these dabbing pages to practice three kindergarten math skills!
Cotton swabs + fine motor
Cotton swab dabbing pages like my Fall Dabbing Pages are great for fine motor work. Using cotton swabs for dabbing activities provides several benefits, including:
Suggested materials for dabbing pages
Using these pages just requires a few materials and very little prep. I like to use these cotton swabs because they’re sturdier and better for the environment than the ones made with plastic. I prefer to use washable ink pads (I like this pack), but I know some teachers use washable paint.
How to use dabbing pages
Students will dip a cotton swab into ink or paint. Then they will dab the tip of the cotton swab on each circle. It’s that easy!
Idea 1: Counting and one-to-one correspondence practice
One simple way to add meaningful one-to-one correspondence and counting practice is by using a dabbing page. You can give students number cards to ten or provide them with one or two dice.
You can mix this up by turning this into a partner activity. Each student will pick a different color. Students will take turns rolling and dabbing that many dots. The player who has dabbed the most dots when there are none left to dab is the winner!
Idea 2: Making patterns
Teaching about patterns is always fun because it’s easy to do in a hands-on way. An easy pattern activity is to have students dab the circles on these pages in a pattern.
Be sure to provide examples of different types of patterns before having your students complete their own.
Idea 3: Addition within 12
I commonly use dice activities to provide practice with basic addition. Adding a dabbing page is super simple! Just have each student roll two dice and add the dots. Then they will dab the number of circles to match the addition sentence. They can continue until all the circles are covered.
Bonus Idea: 2D shape recognition
Learning about shapes is even more fun when it’s hands-on! Here are some shape dabbing pages that you can grab for free!
This free shape dabbing pages pack has 12 pages for a variety of 2D shapes. Just fill in your information below and they’ll be sent to your inbox!
More hands-on math? Yes please!
Looking for more high-quality hands-on math that your kindergarteners will love? Here are a couple other ideas!
I hope you enjoyed reading about some of my favorite ways to use dabbing pages as math activities. Please let me know if I can help with these or any other resources you need for your classroom. Be sure to follow me on Instagram (@kroltgen) and Facebook (Katie Roltgen Teaching) for more ideas and inspiration!
