Objective

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to understand and apply basic arithmetic concepts through fun horse-themed activities.

Materials and Prep

• Paper and pencil
• Counters or small objects (e.g., buttons, pebbles)
• Printed horse images or drawings

Activities

1. Counting Horses: Look at the horse images or drawings and count how many horses are in each picture. Write down the number of horses on a piece of paper.

2. Addition Race: Place a certain number of counters or small objects in a pile. Roll a dice and add that number of counters to the pile. Keep rolling the dice and adding the numbers until you reach a certain total. The first one to reach the total wins the race!

3. Subtraction Obstacle Course: Set up a pretend obstacle course for your toy horse figures. Use objects like books, pillows, or blocks to represent obstacles. Start with a certain number of obstacles and remove some of them. Count how many obstacles are left after each removal.

Transitional-Kindergarten Grade Talking Points

• "Today, we are going to learn about math using horses! Horses can be so much fun, and we can use them to practice our math skills."
• "Let's start by counting how many horses are in each picture. Look carefully and tell me how many horses you see."
• "Now, we are going to play a game called Addition Race. We will roll a dice and add that number of counters to our pile. We keep rolling and adding until we reach a certain total. The first one to reach the total wins!"
• "For our next activity, we will set up an obstacle course for our toy horses. We will start with a certain number of obstacles and remove some of them. We will count how many obstacles are left after each removal."
• "Great job today! You practiced counting, addition, and subtraction using horses. Math can be so much fun when we incorporate our favorite things into it."