Educational Crafts

Welcome to Danielle's Place! We believe learning should be fun. This site is dedicated to teaching children
through crafts and activities. You will find hundreds of inexpensive crafts and activities for children. Most of
the crafts and activities on this site are Bible-based and are great to use in Sunday School, Vacation Bible School,
preschool, and home school. You will find complete Sunday school lessons and lessons for Christian homes schools.

Educational Math Crafts and Activities

Slip The Chip Math Review Game New! "Slip the Chip" Printable Math Review Game - Multiples of 9 and 6

This is a fun way for your children to review their math facts during the summer. They won't even know they are learning!

Two players try to collect as many chips as they can. They can "slip a chip" from the other player if the number is both a mulitple of nine and six.

This game is available to members only.

Cookie Jar Math Facts Review Game

Preparation: Print out the cookie pattern onto cardstock and cut out the cookies.

Colored Pattern (Large file or small file)
Black and White Pattern (Large file or small file) Place ten (or the number of cookies that matches the math fact family you are studying) cookies in a jar.

To play pick a child to start and place his or her name in the following rhyme:

Cookie Jar Math Rhyme
Written by Carolyn Warvel

Mattie takes a cookie from the cookie jar.
Mattie says, "Who me? Yummy!
Mattie then takes a handful of cookies and shows the class.
The class asks, "How many cookies do you see?"
Mattie counts the cookies and says how many she has in her hand.
"I see ______ just for me."
The class then asks, "How many cookies did you leave?"
Mattie then subtracts in her head the amount of cookies she has in her hand from the amount that was in the jar (She doesn't get to look in the jar.) and tells the class how many cookies she thinks is left in the jar. "I left __________, I believe.
The class says, "Let's see how many cookies are in the cookie jar."
Mattie then takes the rest of the cookies out of the jar and counts them to see if she is right.
Keep playing until all the children have had a turn.

Copyright Notice - The craft patterns, ideas, songs, etc. on this web site are copyrighted. You may not publish a copy of them on any other web site, but you may publish a picture of a finished project from this web site on another web site as long as you state where you got the project and include a link back to the project on this web site for the directions and patterns. For example, you may publish a picture a lapbook in which you used a craft from this web site as long as you state where the project came from and include a link.

"Don't Get Skunked" Spinner Math Game

This game can be adapted for children of all skill levels. Teachers fill in the game board with the numbers, addition facts, or multiplication facts their children are studying.

Learn numbers - Children spin the skunk spinner and tell what number the skunks tail lands on. If they are correct, they get a point or a marker. If the tail lands on a dot, they loose all their points.

Addition facts - Addition facts can be reviewed in different ways. Children can spin the spinner twice and add the two numbers together and then record that number on a score sheet if they answered correctly. Or they can get one point each time they answer correctly. Or they can keep a running total, spinning the spinner once every turn, and adding that number to their total. If the skunk's tail (or end of the spinner) lands on a dot, the child looses all his points. Or you can tell the children to add the number that the spinner lands on to a certain number. For example, if you are studying your 7's, then have them add seven to the number that the spinner lands on. This works out very well because you can use the same playing board for all the different sets of addition facts.

Multiplication facts - Multiplication facts can be reviewed in different ways. The children can spin the spinner twice and multiply the two numbers together. If they get it right, they get a point. Or if you are working on certain multiplication facts, for instance, the five's, you can have them multiply the number on the spinner by 5 each time. Or if your child is having problems with certain multiplication facts, you can write those on the playing board to review them. The child would get a point each time he answers one correctly. If the tail of the skunk (or end of the spinner) touches a dot, the child looses all his points and must start again.

To prepare this game draw a circle the size of the inside of a large Styrofoam plate. Cut it out and divide the circle up into sections. Glue the game board onto the top of a large Styrofoam plate or a sturdy box. If you are using a plate, glue another plate to the bottom of the first plate, bottom to bottom. Punch a hole in the plate or box through the center of the game board with a straight pin. Cut out a spinner with an arrow at one end. Place the pin through the middle of the spinner and then place a small bead on the pin. Poke the end of the pin with the bead and spinner on it through the hole in the box. Use pliers to bend the end of the straight pin down so that it doesn't fall out of the plate of box. Write numbers, addition facts, or multiplication facts on the playing board.

A pattern for this game with a skunk spinner is available in the members-only section.

Math Fun with X-ray Fish - Children help the X-Ray find the answer to math problems by moving the X-ray fish picture over another sheet of paper with numbers printed on it until the correct number appears in the bubble. .

What to do: Draw a picture of a fish with bubbles and a seascape or use clip art. Color the sea floor with crayons. Cut out the large bubble in front of the fish's mouth. This next step is optional. Place the picture on top of a piece of paper towel. Use a Q-tip or brush to cover the picture with oil. Don't cover the bones with oil. Wipe the excess oil off the picture. This will make the picture a little see through which will help your child find the numbers easier.

Decide which math facts your child needs to review. Write the problems out or use flash cards. Then write the solutions to the problems in the center of a blue sheet of paper. Show your child one flash card at a time and tell him to help the x-ray fish find the answer by moving the paper over the answer sheet until the number appears in the bubble. If the child finds the correct number, give him a fishy cracker or a couple of crackers (Use the colored fish). When you have finished reviewing, have your child make a graph showing how many of each fish he has collected.

A pattern for this craft is available on the ABC, I Believe Lessons in the X lesson.

"What Can It Be?" Math Review Game - This is a great way to review math facts that your child is having trouble remembering.

What you will need: Construction paper, pictures from coloring books, magazines, calendars, etc.

What to do: Mark off lines one inch apart on a piece of construction paper as shown in the picture. Print one math problem above each line. Cut on the lines leaving one inch from the side of the paper intact. Glue a picture on another piece of construction paper, any size will do, even a very small picture. Then staple the math fact page on top of the picture page. Staple the left-hand side that hasn't been cut so that you can lift up the strips to see what is under them.

Ask your child to pick any math fact on the page and tell you the answer. If he can tell you what the answer is, lift the flap to reveal part of the picture underneath. If he doesn't guess correctly, he should pick another problem. Keep playing until he has discovered what the picture is underneath.

"Searching for Treasure" Math Game

This game can be used for any level. Just write math problems your child is reviewing on the outside of the oysters. Hide a small treat behind one or more of the oysters. Your child then points to one of the oysters, answers the equation, and opens it up to see if he is correct and maybe find a treasure. You can use small pieces of candy, pennies or other coins, seashells, beads to make a necklace, pieces of toys such as Legos, etc. If you don't have small object you can draw a star in one of the oysters and tell you child that if he finds the one with a star, he gets a prize or gets to do something special. Draw oysters shapes on card stock so that two are connected and you can fold them closed to make the top and bottom of the oyster. Laminate the paper or use contact paper. Cut out the shapes and fold them in half. Use a dry erase marker to write math equations on the outside or the shell so that the opening of the oyster is facing away from you child. When you are done wipe of the equations and save them for another day.

A pattern for the oysters is available to members of The Resource Room.

Acorn Search File Folder Game

Help the squirrel find an acorn and review math facts or vocabulary words at the same time. Write your child's math facts or vocabulary words on the back of the leaf patterns. Hide an acorn pattern under one of the leaves. Your child then turns over one leaf at a time looking for the acorn. He has to answer the math problem before he can look under another leaf. You can use this game for a group of children or for just one child and hide more than one acorn behind the leaves. A pattern for this file folder game is available to members of The Resource Room.

A pattern for this file folder game is available to members only.

Candy Corn Math or Vocabulary Review Game - Children practice graphing and review math facts or vocabulary words at the same time.

Review numbers and math facts - Just write the number or math facts you are studying on the wheel and corresponding number or math fact on the graph. Children spin the wheel and place a candy corn on the corresponding math problem.

Ball Toss Review Game - (This is a great review game for children who have a hard time sitting still.) Purchase a large bouncing ball that is a solid light color. Using a permanent marker write math problems on the ball without answers. (You can also write your child's vocabulary words or other things he is studying.) Outline each problem with a large square or odd shape. You just want to section off the ball into small areas. Toss the ball to your child and have him answer the math problem on which his right thumb is resting. Practice tossing the ball high, low, with one bounce in between, two bounces, three bounces, clapping your hands once before catching the ball, twice, etc. Let your children come up with different ways to practice tossing the ball.

Reversing Roles Math Review - If your child is getting bored with filling out math worksheets, here's a great way to get him motivated. Before class do the worksheet yourself, except make a lot of errors on the worksheet. Set up the puppet with a pencil in his mouth to look like he is working on the sheet. When your child comes to class tell him that the puppet just finished his math worksheet for him. The only problem is the puppet isn't very good at math so he will have to correct his work. Tell him to show the puppet what he did wrong and teach him how to get the correct answer. Make the puppet not understand very well so your child will really have to work at teaching him.

Building Blocks Review Game - Review math facts and play at the same time. You will need building blocks or other items that can be stacked such as pennies, books, marshmallows, etc. and math fact cards. Place the building blocks or other objects on a table in front of your child. Tell him that if he answers a math fact correctly he gets to stack a block on top of the pile. If he answers incorrectly, tell him the correct answer and place the math fact card at the bottom of the deck. Keep playing until the stack falls over or your child knows all his facts.

Puzzle Math - You will need a child's puzzle and a marker. Turn the puzzle pieces over and write the math equations without the answers your child is studying on the back of the puzzle pieces. (This game works best if your child has never used the puzzle before.) Have your child pick one piece of the puzzle at a time and give the answer to the math equation. If he gets it right, he gets to keep the piece. If he gets it wrong, he must return the piece and try it again later. Keep playing until your child has put the entire puzzle together. You can make your own puzzles by gluing pictures from magazines onto cardboard and then cutting them apart.

You can make this game more challenging by telling your child that you are going to keep track of how long it takes him to figure out what the picture on the puzzle is. See if he can beat his record when doing another puzzle. He only gets one guess for each piece of the puzzle he puts together.

You can have your children make their own puzzles for their classmates to figure out. Have them each draw a picture at home and bring it in. Tell them to try to draw a single image not a bunch of little things on the page and to make it big enough to cover the whole page. For instance, they can draw a cat or a dog, but not a cat and a dog. When they bring them back to class glue them onto pieces of cardboard or card stock. Cut them apart into the same sections. You can just use squares if you would like. On the back of the piece write the math facts. Make sure you keep track of who drew the picture so the child that drew the picture doesn't get his own picture. Give each child a puzzle and have him play the review game. The child who figures out what picture his on his puzzle first wins.

You can use the puzzles as a review for the whole class using one puzzle at a time. Let the children take turns picking a piece, answering a question, and then trying to guess what the picture is. Keep track of how long it took the children to figure out what the picture was. The children will be interested to find out who drew the hardest picture to figure out.

Battleship Review Game - (Learning numbers) This game is played like the game "Battle Ship". If you have the game, you can use it instead of the printouts, although the printouts may be easier for young children. This game will help your child learn his numbers as well as review other things.

What you will need: Paper, pencil and a highlighter.

What to do: Print out the pattern.

How to Play: Play just like you do the game "Battle Ship" except in order for your child to guess a position, he must answer a question correctly. I use this game to review words, but you can use it to review just about anything. If Danielle knows a word she gets to guess the position of my ships. If she doesn't know the word, I get to guess the position of her ships.

The object of the game is to sink your opponent's ships by guessing their location on your grid. Each player gets a sheet of paper with two grids (pattern). The top grid is used to place your ships. You get to place a ship that is two squares long, a ship that is three squares long, and one that is four squares long. To do this, you color in, with a highlighter pen, two squares that are next to each other either vertical or horizontal but not diagonally. Do this for the three square long ship and the four square long ship. Your opponent does the same thing on his top grid.

The bottom gird is used to keep track of the hits and misses you make. For example, if you guess square # 3 as a position, your opponent will look at the top grid and see if he has a ship in #3 space. If he has a ship in that space, he will say, "hit" and place an X in that square. You will place a circle on your bottom grid in space #3 to tell you that there is a ship in that space. Once you have guessed all the spaces of a particular ship, your opponent will tell you that you have sunk the ship. If you guess a position and there is no ship in that position, your opponent will say, "miss", and you will place an X on your bottom grid.

The person who sinks all their opponent's ships first wins.

Find the Baby Ants Addition and Subtraction Review Game - This game goes along with the short movie "Addem and the Ants - Lost Babies" in which Addem Ant helps Ann Ant find the lost baby ants. After viewing the movie children can play the role of Ann Ant. They use addition and subtraction facts to help them figure out how many babies are missing.

What to do: Print out the baby ant patterns, color pattern, black and white pattern and cut them out. Decide how many ants you want to use depending on the age or your child or the math facts you would like to review. You can start with a few ants and then add more to make it harder. Place all the ants in a bowl or other container. Count the ants with your child to see how many are in the bowl. Tell your child that he is going to play the part of the ant that keeps track of the baby ants. Give him a piece of paper and tell him to write the number of ants he counted on the paper. Tell him to turn around while you hide some ants and that when he turns around he needs to figure out how many ants are missing by counting the ones left in the bowl. Once he counts the ants left, ask him how many are missing. If he doesn't know show him how to subtract the number of ants left from the number of ants he had altogether. Then show him the ants that are hiding. Have him count the hiding ants to see if he was correct. If you don't want to use subtraction, you can show him on a number line how many ants are left and have him count up to the number that he originally had to find out how many are missing. Keep playing until you child has memorized his math facts for the amount of ants. He shouldn't need to use the number line to tell you how many ants are left. Add more ants to the total amount of ants and play again.

Rainy Day Math Fun - (Addition and Subtraction) Children learn their math facts by placing raindrops with numbers on them on the clouds so that they are equal to the number on the cloud. This game can be used with any learning level.

Children pull raindrops out of a can decorated like a cloud.

The pattern and directions for this game are available to Members Only.

Balancing Math Game - This is a fun way to learn addition, subtraction, and multiplication facts. You will need some dice, a balancing and weight scale, (You can find these at educational supply stores) and some small lightweight objects like paper clips or game markers. Decide if you want to add, subtract, or multiply the numbers on the dice depending on what your child is learning. If they are learning facts higher than six, you can change some of the numbers on the dice by placing a sticker on the dice and writing new numbers on them. For instance, instead of using the number one, I replaced it with the number seven. To play, each player throws the dice and adds, subtracts, or multiplies the two numbers. He then places that many objects on his side of the scale. The player whose side is the lowest when all the objects are gone wins the game. You can make a rule that you only pick up the first number of the product or sum of the two dice. For example, if the answer is 36, the player would only pick up three objects and place them on the scale.

Dice Math - Use large dice to practice addition, subtraction, and multiplication.

You can buy 12 jumbo, foam dice from Oriental Trading Company for five dollars to play this game.

Using these large dice are a great way to review math facts with children who have a hard time sitting still. Have your child throw them on the floor and as he goes to retrieve them ask him to add, subtract, or multiply the numbers together. If you have older children, use more than two dice. Use one die for preschool children and just have them add the dots on the die. Children will also enjoy stacking the dice when you are finished reviewing.

Place Value Caterpillar War - Children fill in the place values on their caterpillar cards to try and get the highest number. Give each child a caterpillar card. Review the place values. Break your children up into teams of two or three and give each team a die. Children take turns rolling the die and deciding in which place value they want to place the number they roll. When all the place values have been filled in, the children compare the caterpillars and decide which number is the highest. Have them read the number on their caterpillars out loud. The child who has the largest number gets to keep the caterpillars.

A pattern for this craft is available to members only.

"Gerber the Caterpillar" Learn-to-Count Game

Make "Gerber the Caterpillar" craft from the Butterfly and Caterpillar craft page. Write a number on the top or side of each section of the caterpillar. Help your child learn to count by pointing to the numbers on the boxes as you count. When your child learns all the numbers on the boxes add new boxes and numbers. Your children will love to see how big his or her caterpillar can grow. Note: You can also use ABC's on the boxes.

Frog Math Activities

1. Measuring distance with Plastic Frogs - Have a frog-leaping race with plastic frog toys. Oriental Trading Company has plastic frogs that jump when you press down on them. You can buy 12 dozen for $2.49. Just type in 39/14 in the search box on the left. Give each child a plastic frog and let him practice making it leap by pressing down on its back. Then start the race. Have the children take turns measuring how far their frog leaps using a measuring tape. Write down each distance on the board.

2. Frog Toss Math Game - Before class make some frog beanbags and cut out some lily pad shapes from construction paper. Write numbers on the lily pads and tape them to the floor. Write your children's name on the board. Let them take turns throwing the beanbag frogs onto the lily pads and then adding up their score. You can make this game appropriate for any grade level. If you have younger children, use smaller numbers and have them add them together. Each child should add his own score. If you have older children, you can practice multiplication families by having them multiply the numbers on the lily pad by a certain number and then add the answer to their score.

3. Feed the Frog Math Game - Before class prepare the paper plate frog on the Frog Crafts Page. Print out the fly patterns and cut them apart. Decide which math family you want to work on and write the multiples of that math family on the back of the flies, on number per fly. Also write some extra numbers that don't match that fact family. Place the flies in a bag. Have your children take turns picking out a fly from the bag. Ask the child to look at the number on the back of the fly and tell you if it belongs to the fact family you are studying. If it does, he gets to feed it to the frog. Keep playing until all the children have had a turn.

4. Leapfrog Math Families - Decide which math family you will be reviewing. Have your children line up into rows. If you pick the 7s math family and want to review 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, 56, 63, 70, you will need to place the children into row of 10 because there are ten multiples of 7. Have your children play leapfrog over the children in front of them, but they must also say the multiples as they leap over each child so that all the children can hear them. Make sure you tell them that the next person in line cannot start leaping until the last number of the fact family is said. Keep playing until all the children have had a turn. You can also use this as a relay race to see which team does it the fastest.

Have a frog-leaping race with plastic frog toys. Oriental Trading Company has plastic frogs that jump when you press down on them. You can buy 12 dozen for $2.49. Just type in 39/14 in the search box on the left. They also have lots of frog crafts, games, and toys that can be used as prizes.

Start your home school day right with this fun and engaging Bible study
curriculum for preschool through third grade.

1. Each lesson in this curriculum is a thematic unit based on a letter of the alphabet, an animal starting with that letter, and a basic Bible truth.

2. Each thematic unit in this curriculum is used for one week reinforcing the main Bible truth and integrating it into every study area through games and activities. Areas include: math, reading, writing, science, physical fitness, and more.

3. The Bible lessons and activities in this curriculum are great for children who have special needs, such as children with ADD, ADHD, or other learning disabilities because all areas of study are reinforced using active learning and lots of sensory stimulation. Children learn while having fun!

4. The lessons and activities in this curriculum were designed for children preschool through third grade. You can use the same lesson for all these levels. The games and activities are made so you can adapt them to your child's needs and academic level.

To find out more about the ABC, I Believe Lessons AND receive the first four lessons for free go to the ABC, I Believe Homepage.

Teach your children to count, add, and subtract using interactive play with soft felt pieces. Your children will love working with these adorable counting sets and math sets. They are great for children who have a had time concentrating and need lots of simulation to keep their attention. Click on the yellow button above for more information.

[Home] [Craft Index] [Bible Lessons] [VBS] [Learning Fun ] [Links]