Monster Math Games & Activities – with loads of free printables for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade

I love creating themed math to go with the letter we’re learning!  We’ve been learning about the letter M this October, so a round-up of monster math games and activities seemed perfect.  Browse through this list to find free math activities for kids from preschool through first grade!

 1 – Counting, One-to-One Correspondence, Subitizing, Matching – Monster Dice Match

Your preschooler can practice a lot of basic math skills with this simple game.  Each of you uses a game board. Take turns rolling a numbered die.  Then cover the matching square on the board. The first to cover his entire board, wins.  You can read more about it and get four different game boards in my original post.  If you want to adapt this game for a younger preschooler, roll a dotted die and just practice matching it to one on the game board.

2 – Counting, One-to-One Correspondence, Matching  – Monster Memory

 My Three loves matching games, so I built on that by creating this matching memory game to help him practice counting objects up to 10. You can get the free download from my original post.

3 – Subtraction – Read and Subtract

A few months ago, I created Ten Little Monsters, a  free book for early readers.  I used my Pink Pueblo clip art to make a set of monsters, cut them out, and used them as manipulatives to teach my Three about subtraction.  As we read the book, we counted the set of monsters and took one away each time a monster left.  He counted the new total each time.  You can get your own free copy of Ten Little Monsters by visiting this post.   Get the monsters here: Pictures of ten little monsters – the measured mom

4 – Addition – Monster Mash Roll and Color

My Four and Six loved this activity. They took turns rolling two dice, adding them together, and coloring the sum.  The one who colored the entire board first, won.

While they were playing this, my Three used a simpler version with numbers only from 1-6. He rolled the die and colored the matching number. I was quite surprised when he completed the whole page all on his own! Get four free monster game boards from Little Miss Kindergarten.

5- Odd/Even – Monster Math Odd & Even Packet

I just love this cute printable from Teach With Me!  My first grader sorted the monster cards by odd and even.  She placed odd numbers on Odd Twad. Even numbers went on Even Shteven.  We used glass gems to help determine which numbers were odd and even. She also learned that you can tell if a number is odd or even by looking at the last digit.

6 – Addition – Missing Addend Monster Flip Cards

My just-turned-Five used these cards to find the missing addends from groups up to 10.  He solved some problems in his head and used manipulatives on the tougher cards. You can read more about it and get the missing addend flip cards from my original post.

7 – Problem Solving – Monster Problem Solving Cards

I printed this free set of monster math problems with the hopes of trying it with my first grader.  She’s pretty spent after a day at school, so we pulled this out on a Saturday morning.  The set contains 16 different logic problems that kids can solve using the printed monsters.  The problems go something like this: “You have 7 monsters.  There are a different number of each color monster. There are more yellow monsters than any other color. One is red.”  I began by modeling, as this sort of activity is brand new to her.  It turns out that she loved it! I’d recommend this for kids in first to third grade.

8 – Number Recognition, Number Sense, Counting – Monsters on a Hundreds Chart

My Five is quite proud that he has recently mastered counting to 100.  To build on that, I created this simple Hundreds Chart and used my Pink Pueblo clip art to create a set of tiny monsters.  I laminated the board and the monsters and put an adhesive magnet on the back of each one.   (100 monsters come in the printable just in case you want that many – I only made about 15!)

Occasionally he gets a few numbers wrong, so I knew this visual would help him.  He found patterns, practiced counting, and guessed which numbers I had covered.  You can get the monster hundreds chart and 100 tiny monsters here: Monster Math with a Hundreds Chart – the measured mom

9 – Counting, One-to-One Correspondence, Number Recognition – Monster Count & Clip Cards

I have a weakness for count-and-clip cards — so simple, but so appealing for little hands. My Three practiced counting monster groups up to 10. My Five practiced counting sets from 11-20.  Get your free printable here.

10 – Counting, One-to-One Correspondence, Subitizing   — Say it, Count it, Write it

I love this free math mat from Learning and Teaching with Preschoolers!  I laminated the board and got out a dry erase marker, googly eyes, and a die.  My Five rolled the die, added the correct number of googly eyes, and wrote the corresponding numeral in the box.  Then he erased the number and played again.

11- Patterns – Monster Pattern Cards

My Three definitely needed work with patterns!  Here’s what it sounded like:

“Let’s look at our pattern. We have red, green, red, green… what’s next?”
“Blue!”
“Well, no, there aren’t any blue here.  We want to keep the same pattern. Let’s try again.  Red, green, red, green…”
“Yellow!”

It was all starting to come together after some more practice. 🙂  Get these from the monster pack from 2 Teaching Mommies.

 12 – Addition – Monster Math Making 20

My Six played this addition memory game — she got to keep each pair that added up to 20.  While she could figure out a few quite easily (0+20, 1+19, 10+10), she usually had to use her fingers to find the sums.  If we played this enough times she would start to learn the pairs and begin to use some mental math to solve the problems.  You can get this game for free by visiting this link.

13 – Ordering – Monster Math Ordering 3 Numbers

Since we’d done a lot of work with the monster hundreds chart (see earlier in this post), my Five had gotten a pretty good handle on reading numbers from 1-100. The question was – did he understand them? Could he order them from least to greatest?  While he sometimes made some mistakes, he caught himself and did a great job ordering sets of three. To make this more challenging, you could give your child a larger set of numbers to put in order.  Or set out a large set and give him a number to fit in its correct place.

You can download these monster cards for free by clicking on this link.

Check out these fabulous monster-themed math ideas from around the web!

• Get out the googly eyes and do this fun monster math on a tray – from No Time for Flashcards.
•  Teach addition and subtraction with this cute and creative idea from Inner Child Learning. 
• Create your own monsters out of boxes and do a variety of fun learning with with these ideas from Nurture Store.
•  Combine math and playdoh with this idea by Crayon Freckles over on Learn with Play at Home.
•  Count-and-fill Frankstein!  See the idea over at No Time for Flashcards.
• You’ll find practice pages for addition, subtraction, counting, and comparing with this Monster Pack from 3 Dinosaurs.
• Monster Money Match  from Me and My Gang
• Monster Math: Ordering Numbers from 1-100 by Moore Fun in Kindergarten
• Monster Snack Attack (counting, ordering, addition) from Heather’s Heart
• Tally Monster Freebie by Littlest Scholars
• Monster Addition Worksheet (sums to 10) 
• Happy Monsters Tot Pack from 1+1+1=1
• Monster Kindergarten Printables from 1+1+1=1
• Match Monster Addition Cards & Sums  from Pitner’s Potpourri
• Monster Math Subtraction Problems Worksheet
• Monster Math Problems

More great resources

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