Math Activities for 1st Grade

We know that kids aren’t exactly excited at the thought of doing math. It involves numbers, calculations, and basically everything that requires kids to keep wracking their brains. It is only natural that they feel distracted from time to time while solving math problems.

That’s why we’ve listed these awesome math activities for 1st grade that take the fear out of figures and even make math FUN. Don’t believe us? Check out our math activities for 1st grade below.

Math Activities for 1st Grade

Our hands-on math activities for 1st grade test your child’s math skills in the most fun ways possible.

Math Baseball: Math Games for Addition and Subtraction

Review your child’s addition and subtraction knowledge with one of our best, hands-on math activities for 1st grade.

To play this game, you’ll need a pair of dice, a sheet of paper, counters to use as baseball players (or any tiny props), and number cards.

First, make your game board using your sheet of paper. It’s simple, just draw a simple diamond shape on hard paper or a poster board. Label the box in each corner with a number card. These number cards must change for each inning. Remember to place your counters/props and assign props of different colors to each team.

Each player rolls the dice, makes a math equation (using addition and subtraction) to equal one of the 4 numbers on your diamond box to get a home run. If they can’t create an equation to equal the number on the board for more than 3 rounds, they’re disqualified. 

If you’re looking for digital-physical, fun math activities for 1st grade, check out Osmo’s Math Wizard series for grades 1 & 2. Kids will learn addition, subtraction, and measurement through play, all while entering a world of mystical dragons and potions.

Part-Whole Relationships: Lego At-Home Math Activities for 1st Grade

Yes! This is one of the best math activities for 1st grade to try with legos!

It’s possible to teach your child about part-whole relationships with legos. First, help them understand what part and whole mean with an example – If you’ve got 80 cookies in total, out of which 35 are dark chocolate and the rest are white chocolate, how many of them are white chocolate cookies? In this example, we need to find the part. The whole, on the other hand, is 80. To find the missing part, we need to solve the equation accordingly.

How can you teach kids this concept with legos? Here’s how. Use an example like this – Ryan (you could use the name of your child instead) had 10 lego blocks, out of which 4 were blue, and the rest were yellow. How many lego blocks were yellow? Let them write down equations like “B + Y = L” where B denotes blue, Y denotes yellow, and L represents legos in total. You could hide the right number of yellow blocks under a bowl so that they can cross-check their answer by removing the bowl!

For more at-home math activities for 1st grade, read the rest of our article.

Multiplication Snack Store: Offline, Fun Math Activities for 1st Grade

We know learning multiplication could get a little overwhelming. We’ve got one of the best, hands-on math activities for 1st grade to make multiplication super fun.

First, make sure you’ve got some snacks at home. Maybe some M&Ms, strawberries, biscuits, and pretzels. Put each food item in a bowl on the table, and assign a price to each item. For example, M&Ms could cost 4¢ each, pretzels could cost 3¢ each, and so on.

Now, give each child only about 75 cents. They need to ‘purchase’ the items by multiplying price with quantity, without crossing their spending limit! Once they finish their purchase, they need to give you the remaining amount by using their subtraction skills.

Playful Venn Diagrams: Best Math Activities for 1st Grade

Learning Venn diagrams can be exciting with toy animals! Try one of our best math activities for 1st grade today.

Make 3 big circles with animal attributes like – herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, or mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. This is a great way to introduce them to new vocabulary too! Once you’ve formed your circles, ask your kids to place the animal toys in the right circle accordingly.

Play tic-tac-toe

Play a tic tac toe game with addition problems. Find a solution to each problem in the box (grid), and circle or dot the ones that sum up to 10. The first child to get three in a row can be declared as a winner.

Navigate a time telling puzzle

Always begin with the first clock and color in the straight line that displays the exact time. That leads the child to the next watch, and so on until they are done.

We hope you liked our math activities for 1st grade. Visit our website for more math games for kids, and math games for grade 1.

Frequently Asked Questions on Math Activities for 1st Grade

What are some of the Math Activities for 1st Grade?

Some of the Math Activities for 1st Grade are math addition and subtraction games, math baseball, Osmo’s number, Osmo’s math wizard, division snack store, multiplication bakery truck, etc.

What are the advantages of Math Activities for 1st Grade?

The advantages of Math Activities for 1st Grade are that kids learn counting and counting numbers. Also, you can engage them in addition and subtraction games for 1st grade.