Kindergarten Math Skills and Concepts

Kindergarten students will work on one-to-one correspondence (see Glossary), learn about ordinal numbers (First, Second, Third, Fourth, etc.), learn to count by 1s, and may even begin learning to skip count by numbers like 2s, 5s, and 10s (ex: 2,4, 6, 8, or 5, 10, 15, 20). Frequently, a Hundreds Board and/or number line is used to visually represent these Kindergarten math concepts, and to assist students in learning these math skills. Read our blog for advice on how to teach your child skip counting by 5’s. Giggle Facts teaches children the relationship between numbers (Number Sense), which in turn helps with math concepts such as skip counting, greater than / less than, before / after, odd and even numbers, etc.

Addition and Subtraction Math Facts may be introduced in Kindergarten. Students may be introduced to Addition as the concept of “adding on” to another number, and they may even encounter Addition strategies such as “Doubles” (6+6 or 4+4) and “Turnarounds” (2+1 = 3, so 1+2 = 3). They may also be introduced to Subtraction, learning the concept of Subtraction as “taking away”. Students will likely begin inventing simple number stories using Addition and Subtraction (ex: Tom has 4 apples. He picks 2 more from the tree. How many apples does Tom have now?).

Children may begin to practice some simple Math Facts in the classroom, however, children will certainly benefit from practicing more at home, to begin learning and retaining Math Facts at this earlier stage. The Giggle Facts^TM program begins at this early stage of math learning. Since instant recall of Math Facts is imperative to learning higher-level math concepts (see Research), it is beneficial to begin practicing and learning Math Facts in Kindergarten. Giggle Facts^TM is a perfect way to play while learning Addition and Subtraction Facts, without relying solely on tedious flashcards. The Math Program includes the frequent use of playing cards, dominoes, and multi-sided dice to make learning fun and to make the math games engaging for children.

Kindergarteners will identify the names and values of pennies, nickels, and dimes, and perhaps begin counting small numbers of coins. Children who have begun learning Addition and Subtraction Facts will, overall, have an easier time adding / counting money. Giggle Facts^TM allows children to develop their number sense that will help them make connections between Math Facts and skip counting with money.

Each digit in larger numbers has a value, depending on its position in the number. For example, in the number 78, the 7 is worth 7 “tens” (or 70), and the 8 is worth 8 “ones”, or simply 8. Kindergarteners will begin breaking numbers from 10 to 20 into “tens” and “ones” as an introduction to Place Value.

Giggle Facts^TM teaches students to break down larger numbers into their smaller components (tens and ones) through 2 different strategies. There is an Addition strategy named “Teens”, and a Subtraction strategy named “More Teens” in the Giggle Facts^TM program that supports the concept of Place Value.

Students will identify basic patterns using colors, shapes and numbers (ex: red, blue, red, blue or 2,4,2,4) in kindergarden.

Children in Kindergarten may do simple surveys such as finding out their classmates’ “Favorite Season”. This information might be represented using a Pictograph, where each season would have a different picture representing it (ex: Spring: umbrella, Summer: sunshine, Fall: leaves, Winter: snowflake). The kindergarten students would place a picture of their favorite season on a graph, creating a giant picture graph or pictograph of the class data.

Learning to tell time is an important math skill that students begin to work on in Kindergarten. Children will learn about the concept of time (morning, afternoon, days, weeks, years), and they may learn to tell time to the hour and half-hour.

Kindergarteners will have many opportunities to measure in a variety of ways. Kindergarten students will compare various lengths, weights and temperatures. The children may also have the opportunity to do some measuring using non-standard units (ex: hand spans), and using calendars, etc.

Kindergarden students will learn to identify and describe 2-dimensional shapes such as circles, triangles, squares, and rectangles. They may look at simple 3-D solids such as cubes.

Kindergarten students may have opportunities to look for symmetry in everyday objects. An image that is symmetrical is something that has two sides that are identical. One side could be seen as a “mirror image” of the other side.

Kindergarten students will possibly investigate fractional parts of a whole as part of the math curriculum (ex: the child will divide shapes into equal parts like halves, thirds, or fourths).