Jimmy has 5 cans. Joey has 5 cans. How many cans do they have altogether?
There were 4 kids playing tag. One more kid joined in. How many kids are playing now?
These are the types of word problems I’m used to seeing on my daughter’s kindergarten math homework. I guess it’s the librarian in me, but I find myself wanting a little more from the stories.
Like, I want to know, why do Jimmy and Joey each have five cans? What are they planning to do with these cans?
And that kid that joined in the game? So, how did that happen, exactly?
I got to thinking that these word problems are a bit of a missed opportunity. Instead of an ambiguous story about some random dudes with cans and kids playing tag, what if the stories had just a teeny bit more depth? What if math time could also be a time to teach kids about kindness? Perhaps we could find out that Jimmy and Joey were collecting cans to give to a food pantry! Why couldn’t we find out that the four kids who were playing tag saw a new student sitting alone, introduced themselves, and invited him to play?!
Enter KIND-ergarten Math
I decided this type of math resource should exist, so last week I sat down and started making what I call “KIND-ergarten Math” resources for my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I wanted to create math worksheets that would allow teachers to weave some character education conversations into their math lessons. Each of my “KIND-ergarten Math” worksheets has word problems that do tell a little bit more of the story, giving the teachers the opportunity to take a few minutes to talk to their students about kindness.
So now, those flowers we’re adding up are a gift for Grandma. The crayons we add are crayons we are helping to pick up when a classmate dropped them. The shirts we are counting are for a clothing drive.
So far, I have two of these resources in my store – a KIND-ergarten Math Free Sample and KIND-ergarten Math for Springtime. (Update 04/07/18: I just added another KIND-ergarten Math Resource – KIND-ergarten Math: Subtraction! Feel free to check it out!) I am so excited to think about all the positive conversations that can accompany these assignments. I can imagine all the awesome things that amazing teachers will do with these, and I’m totally pumped to make more of these resources.
To my librarian friends, don’t worry – I do have several library resources in the works, too! But I’m hoping that by developing new types of resources, I can reach out to a whole new group of students and play a little role in their education as well.
And as a celebration of my new resources, EVERYTHING in my Teachers Pay Teachers store is 15% off from now until Monday, March 19, 2018.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, and may God bless you! 🙂
and 
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is the story of a mouse who lives in a library and writes books at night, so it even inspires kids to become authors!
Fun, right? (By the way, I did have to adjust the Jingle Bells melody a little to make it work, so “We” in lines 2 and 6 is a little grace note, and “don’t want them to end” and “love nonfiction too” pick up the “jingle all the way,” if that makes sense.)