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Our family has been having an absolute blast adding more play to our day with our 31-Day Gameschool Challenge. It has been a wonderful way to transition back to a homeschool routine after the holidays, and a great way to spend cold wintry afternoons. Several members of our Gameschool Community have asked about printable games. Printable games are affordable, educational, and they don’t take up much space. They can be stored in file folders! Today, I would like to welcome Yara Habanbou, founder of Sea of Knowledge. Yara is an ESL teacher with a passion for making learning fun and engaging. Today, Yara is sharing a hands-on math game to help children learn to add to ten… just in time for Valentine’s Day. I hope you enjoy these Penguin Match Makers as much as my little guy did!

Penguin Match Makers: Free Hands-on Math Fun

Teaching children to add to ten is a wonderful way to practice those addition skills. Students need to know how to make ten so that they are able to process the idea that putting numbers together would make a sum. There are a number of ways to get kids to understand this concept and with practice, they will eventually learn it.

It is a great idea for kids to know the expressions that equal to ten. Using [easyazon_link identifier=”B00AQURHDW” locale=”US” tag=”mylitpop-20″]ten frames[/easyazon_link] is an essential component to getting the kids to visualize the numbers. Adding a simple activity with ten frames along with this one would be a great idea! Another activity I like to do before giving the kids some independent work is start with a number like 2 and ask them, “How many more do we need to get to 10?” And so on and so forth. They will then continue counting to reach ten and you’ll see that some will use their fingers to count and others will remember the numbers in their heads – whichever way they do it as long as they get to the right answer.

Penguin Match Makers – Making Ten

Here’s what you’ll need to prepare for these fun Penguin Match Makers Making Ten activity:

[easyazon_link identifier=”B00ZI7MI96″ locale=”US” tag=”mylitpop-20″]Laminator[/easyazon_link]
[easyazon_link identifier=”B00BB5DJU6″ locale=”US” tag=”mylitpop-20″]A4 paper[/easyazon_link]
[easyazon_link identifier=”B000P0LNRE” locale=”US” tag=”mylitpop-20″]Scissors[/easyazon_link]
Puzzle cards (below)

In this post, I will share some fun Valentine’s Day themed cards. These are so simple to use in a center, the black and white version is also included so you can print them out on colored paper to save ink!

Setting up is fairly simple, once the cards have been printed and laminated, you can cut them apart along the dotted lines and place them in a basket. The kids then choose a puzzle card and read the number that is on it and attempt to find the matching puzzle piece from the other basket. These puzzle cards are self-correcting puzzles, so they are able to see if their puzzles add up. It is, however, a good idea to check on the kids as they work to see if they are on the right path. I like to get them to use some form of counting items like [easyazon_link identifier=”B0006PKZ7W” locale=”US” tag=”mylitpop-20″]bears[/easyazon_link] or counters to place underneath each puzzle to help them count along and visualize the numbers. I find that this strategy works with students struggling with the concept of addition.

These activities help students master their equations. There are some tricky ones like 7 + 3 or 8 + 2 but with practice, kids begin to get the hang of these equations. The fun thing about these puzzles is that once they are laminated, they can be used over and over. I have them placed in a file folder for easy storage.

Ready to download this activity?

If so, simply click this link or the image below to download for free!

Looking for other ways to make math fun?

Do you want to learn more about gameschooling?

Do you want to add more play to your homeschool or family routine? Are you a family of gameschoolers, looking for the best educational games on the market? Or, are you just looking to add some more fun (and learning) to your next family game night? Be sure to join our subscriber community, where you will have access to the official My Little Poppies Gamelist, a resource page for gameschooling families. This subscriber-only site features the ultimate list of games, organized by subject, including a free downloadable PDF of all the games mentioned!