This idea for Summer Math practice is quick and easy to set up. The best part is that the kids can enjoy a bit of water play while practicing Math! A big thank you to our friends at Melissa & Doug for sponsoring today’s creative learning activity. I set this up as an open invitation for the kids to try and it was a big hit! My kids are 7 and 11 and they both used this set up — my youngest practiced addition and subtraction while my oldest worked on practicing multiplication and division. I loved that this activity worked well for such a wide age range!
For this Summer Math practice activity, you will need:
- Taffy Turtle Catch & Hatch
- Wipe Off Board and Wipe Off Crayons like this one from Melissa & Doug– or other writing surface
- Paper Towel
- A Pool, Water Table, or Bath Tub – we used a baking pan filled with water
Draw a triangle at the top of the writing surface, and write blanks and the Math operations as shown.
Invite your child to select 2 turtle eggs, open them up, and begin filling in the blanks! Those two numbers will be added together to get the sum and all three numbers will be entered into the triangle. Use the triangle as a guide for completing the rest of the fact families below.
When your child is done with the fact families, erase the board and start again by selecting two more turtles.
Other Variations:
- For advanced swimmers, you could toss the turtle eggs into a pool and invite the kids to swim underwater to select two turtles.
- For older children, you can try multiplication and division fact families too!
- Use the turtle eggs in the bath tub and write with bath tub crayons.
- Try placing the turtle eggs in a water table and use a chalk board surface to record the fact families instead.
This is a great way to sneak in some Math practice while enjoying water play and working on important fine-motor skills!
