Digital Snowball Addition and Subtraction Mats Math Activity
Working on addition and subtraction facts this winter? Your students will love practicing with these digital snowball addition and subtraction mats.
Snowball Addition and Subtraction Digital Activity
No time to prep a print and play activity? No problem! We love this winter-themed digital addition and subtraction activity. While students don’t need a printable or manipulatives to play, they still get great hands-on practice with this interactive activity.
Students will use virtual snowballs to solve addition and subtraction problems with sums and differences within 10. They’ll become more familiar with reading and solving equations and will also work on one-to-one correspondence.
This digital activity is perfect for kindergarten math, 1st grade, and even some 2nd grade students.
Setting Up the Snowball Addition and Subtraction Activity in Google Slides
Students may use Google Slides™ to do this activity.
The download file includes a detailed guide with instructions and pictures on how to use this activity with your students, but it is quite simple to do.
If you are an instructor or teacher, you will want to copy the Google Slides assignment to your Google Drive and save it as a master copy.
Make sure that you click the dropdown next to the attachment. Pick the “Make a copy for each student” option.
Setting Up this Snowball Addition and Subtraction Activity in Seesaw
Students can also use this activity in Seesaw, if you would like.
You will click the Seesaw specific link in the download file. When you arrive at the activity, you will need to click the “Save Activity” button. Then you will assign the activity to your students.
Learning Math Facts
In this activity, students will work with addition and subtraction facts on 5 different mats. Each mat has 9 equations, offering 45 opportunities for the students to practice and grow their math fact fluency. There are 2 mats with all addition problems and 2 mats with all subtraction problems. The final mat has mixed addition and subtraction.
To use the digital mats, students will choose an addition or subtraction equation on the digital mat to solve first. They’ll use a problem-solving strategy to find the sum or difference. Next, they’ll find the virtual snowball on the side of the screen that has the matching sum or difference. They’ll drag and drop it over the corresponding equation to complete the addition or subtraction equation.
To encourage problem-solving, your students can use a variety of strategies to help them find the correct answer, such as:
- draw a picture
- model with manipulatives
- use a number line
- solve with a ten frame
- count on from the first number
Once they’ve used all of the snowballs, the mat is complete. However, encouraging students to check their work is a key skill that will ensure all of the equations are solved correctly.
Differentiated Snowball Math
Since this digital math activity has mats for addition, subtraction, and 1 mixed mat, that makes differentiation simple. You can assign either addition-only mats or subtraction-only mats, depending on the skill students need to work on most. As their skills progress, they can work on all of the mats, incorporating the mixed addition and subtraction mat.
You can even split your students into small groups depending on the mat they’re working on, allowing them to work closely with you as the teacher to master the skill they’re on. A fun way to use this activity in small groups is to play a version of BINGO, encouraging students to fill their mat with snowballs first!
You can also use these digital snowball mats in a variety of learning settings, such as:
- whole group math instruction
- math centers
- small groups
- digital stations
- distance learning
- early finisher activity
- morning work
- exit ticket
- math fact assessment
- equation building practice
- spiral review
- winter-themed unit
There’s a lot of fun math fact fluency practice coming your way this winter with these digital snowball addition and subtraction mats!
Need more interactive and exciting learning activities to help your young learners master math facts? Click here for more fun activities.
Click the button below to grab your copy of the FREE snowball addition and subtraction mats for Google Slides and Seesaw.
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Paperless Snowball Letter Sounds Activity
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