Number Stories When You Only Have a Minute

Number stories are a great way to bring mathematics to life for young children and they are embedded in every maths curriculum I’ve ever seen from early childhood through high school. They’re engaging for kids and encourage them to think about how numbers work in the ‘real’ world. So this is the focus for this month’s ‘when you only have a minute’ post.

What you need

• Cats and Dogs Number Stories free printable
• Copy paper or card for printing
• Scissors
• Laminating sheets and laminator (optional)
• Craft sticks and tape (optional)
• Holepunch and metal or plastic ring to keep math cards together (optional)
• Dry erase marker (optional)

Putting it together

1. Print off the colour or black and white pages onto paper or card. You may like to enlarge the scenery to allow more space for the stories to be ‘acted’ out. The equation prompt cards are optional.
2. For non-US users, these pages are letter-sized rather than A4 so they won’t be a perfect fit on A4 (or A3) and will have a little extra white on the edges.
3. Cut on all lines to separate the dogs, cats and maths prompt cards (if you’re using them).
4. Laminate the pieces and scenery mat if you wish, especially if you’d like your kids to be able to write answers on the equations using a dry erase marker.
5. Use tape to attach the dogs and cats to craft sticks if you’d like. It makes them puppet-like and encourages animal movement on the mat.
6. Punch a hole in the top left corner of the equation cards and put them on a ring for storage
7. Store everything together in a large ziploc bag so they’re ready for use. I like to store the cats and dogs in separate smaller ziploc bags inside the bigger bag to keep everything from spilling out when the kids are using them. And to encourage them to put everything back neatly when they’re done!

How to use

Please note: I have included both dogs and cats for student interest. If they use both in a problem the question simply becomes ‘how many animals?’ It is common for number stories to include numbers to 10 in Kinder and numbers to 20 in Grade 1. Younger children are also fine with numbers from 5 to 10 but would mostly focus on addition.

To start with, make up a number story and ‘act’ it out on the mat. For example

One day 3 dogs went for a picnic to the park (3 dogs are paraded onto the mat)

After lunch 2 more dogs came to play with them (add 2 more dogs to the mat)

How many dogs are now playing in the park? (count the dogs together to get 5)

A subtraction example

There were 7 cats having a meeting (put 7 cats on the mat)

2 of them got hungry and went home for lunch (take 2 cats away)

2 cats got sleepy and went home for a nap (take 2 more cats away)

1 cat saw a mouse and chased it down the street (take 1 more cat away)

How many cats are still at the meeting? (count the cats together to get 2)

Once the children understand how it works encourage them to make up their own addition and subtraction number stories for each other. Creating a quick story and finding an answer can easily be done in one or two minutes!

Maths prompt cards

The small maths equations can be used as prompts to encourage children to create a story on the mat that fits the equation. Then they can just say the answer, or they can write it in the laminated square with a dry erase marker.

Extension activities (that will certainly take more than a minute)

• Ask children to write the equations for their made-up stories in their maths journals.
• Ask them to write out the number story they’ve created.
• Have children make an individual or class book where each page adds or takes away dogs or cats till they get to the final answer on the final page.

If you have not printed off the Number Stories printable yet here’s another link.

I hope your little ones enjoy this activity and wish you happy teaching and learning!