Today, we will be talking all about one of my favourite June activities – summer math activities and crafts. June is definitely one of the craziest months of the school year!
I have had some ridiculous things happen in the month of June throughout my career. Students bouncing off of walls, being REALLY ready to finish school, arguing extra with friends they had previously gotten along with all year… you name it and I have seen it!
At the point of writing this post, I have survived 10 Junes as a teacher. I definitely have some resources and ideas to help you get through yours!
The most difficult June of my career was definitely when I was seven months pregnant. It was 40°C for many days of that month and the fan provided by my administration just didn’t quite cut it.
I was hot, exhausted and emotional, and even though I had a great class that year, the kids were done-zo… Especially in math class!
That year, I decided I needed something that would be engaging, low-prep, take my students a while to complete, and help them practice important math skills in a hands-on way.
I needed something simple, but not just busywork (I don’t like busywork!).
Since it was June and I was teaching maternelle, I also wanted something that would help bridge the gap between what we were working on in maternelle and what they would be moving onto in grade one.
The results?
My summer math activities and crafts!
These actually were so great and my students were so into them that I’ve ended up using them every year since. My students love them year after year.
Plus, I get some awesome summer-y results that look amazing displayed on my bulletin board!
Summer Math Crafts
A math craft is basically what it sounds like… a craft involving math!
When completing this activity, your students will be cutting and pasting and making something summer-y in a way that helps them practice important math skills.
The crafts in the resource that I created for my students when I was pregnant are all for working on addition and subtraction (or pre-addition and pre-subtraction). They will be, putting numbers together and taking them apart.
My math craft templates each come with two printing options, so no matter what supplies you have left at the end of the year, you should be able to create these as long as you have copy paper.
You can also use scrapbooking paper or Astrobright coloured paper – anything you have left!
Math Craft Options
The first option has all of the template pieces on one page, so you can print that off on card stock, cut out each shape, and then trace the desired number of shapes on scrapbook paper or coloured paper. No wasting paper or ink!
You could also trace them onto plain white copy paper, and have your students colour them in if you don’t have scrap paper or coloured paper.
The second option has the template pieces grouped by colour, so you can print directly on colour paper or card stock and have your students cut them out from there.
That’s usually the option I use, as long as I have enough coloured paper left by the end of the year.
I personally find the results look so amazing, colourful and beautiful hanging up on the bulletin board! Plus, I want my students to focus on the counting, the cutting, and the glueing.
There are also two options for the recording “strips” to go along with the crafts.
If your students aren’t officially doing addition or subtraction yet with symbols, no worries!
I have included two versions of each math sentence; one with words and another with symbols, so your students can use whatever works for them. Even if your students aren’t adding and subtracting using symbols yet, they still need to know that numbers can be taken apart and put together.
How Summer Math Activities and Crafts Work in my Classroom
Here are all the steps to my own math craft routine:
- I have all craft pieces prepped ahead of time and cut apart (but not cut out).
- I hand out and have each student cut out and assemble (where necessary) the main part of the craft (middle of the sun, ice cream cone, fish body, bucket).
- Once finished, each student comes to me and rolls a die. They take that amount of objects in the first colour (rays, ice cream scoops, spots, seashells), cut them out, and glue them on.
- Once finished, each student returns, rolls the die again, and takes that amount of objects in the second colour. Again, they cut them out and glue them on.
- Finally, each student will complete the math sentences to make them true for their craft (I use the no symbols version for maternelle, and the symbols version for première année. I like to alternate between the addition and the subtraction versions).
- I have my students glue their craft and their sentences onto a piece of construction paper, which I then display.
5-star Reviews
If you don’t want to take my word for how awesome summer math activities and crafts are, I’ll share some reviews here so that you can see what other teachers think!
I’m really proud of this product because (as of this point when I’m writing this blog post) it has all five star reviews which is actually really difficult to get on TpT now!
I really love this resource and like to give myself a little pat on the back for the fact that I was able to come up with it while I had pregnancy brain because, as you’ll know if you’ve ever been pregnant before, pregnancy brain is a very real thing! 😂
To grab your own copy of the summer themed math crafts you can click HERE or on the picture below:
There are four crafts inside of this resource so you can do one per week in June or you can save them all for the final week of school… whatever works best for you!
I definitely LOVE doing these throughout the month of June to give my students something fun, engaging and hands-on to do that they are really into and enjoy creating.
Want More Math Crafts?!
If you enjoy these crafts and you want some for other moments in the school year, don’t forget that there are a couple more in my free French resource library that you can use for Halloween and Christmas.
If you’re not a member of my French resource library yet, it’s totally free to sign up – just click HERE, enter your name and email, and click on the pink button. Then, click the confirmation link that will be emailed to you.
Once you’ve done that, I’ll be able to email you the password to the free French resource library and you can grab those Halloween and Christmas math crafts as well!
More Blog Posts About Math:
Looking for more math blog posts?! Click and read below!