Gummy Bear Math~ Patterns, Graphing & Addition Activities
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Math is a little more fun when gummy bears are involved!
These Gummy Bear Math activities give kids a hands-on way to practice early math skills including counting, ten frames, patterns, graphing, addition, and subtraction.
You can use real gummy bears for the activities or use the colorful printable gummy bear pieces included in the set. That makes this an easy math center or homeschool activity even when you don’t want to bring out the candy!
Gummy Bear Math Activities
The printable Gummy Bear Math set includes four different activities:
- Gummy Bear Ten Frame Mat
- Gummy Bear Pattern Cards
- Gummy Bear Graphing
- Gummy Bear Addition Cards
The activities are designed for young learners who are building early number sense and beginning arithmetic skills.
Also, try some Gummy Bear Science with this Edible Gummy Bear Slime!
Gummy Bear Ten Frame Math
Ten frames are a great visual tool for helping kids understand numbers and their relationship to five and ten.
Use the blank gummy bear ten frame with real gummy bears or the printable gummy bear pieces.
Have kids choose a number and place that many bears on the ten frame. Then ask questions such as:
- How many gummy bears are there?
- How many more do you need to make 10?
- What happens if you add two more?
- What happens if you take three away?
You can use the same simple mat for counting, addition, subtraction, number combinations, and making ten.
Gummy Bear Pattern Cards
The printable includes five gummy bear pattern cards with partially completed patterns for kids to finish.
Kids look carefully at the colors, determine the pattern, and decide which gummy bear comes next.
You can also have children use real gummy bears to copy the patterns and then create patterns of their own.
Try AB, AAB, ABB, ABC, or other patterns depending on your child’s ability.
Gummy Bear Graphing Activity
Grab a handful of gummy bears and turn snack time into a simple graphing activity!
Have kids sort their gummy bears by color first. Then count how many they have of each color and record the results on the printable bar graph.
They can place gummy bears directly on the graph or color in the corresponding number of squares.
Once the graph is complete, don’t stop at recording the data! Ask kids to interpret what they see:
- Which color did you get the most of?
- Which color did you get the least of?
- Are any colors equal?
- How many gummy bears do you have altogether?
- How many more of one color are there than another?
That’s where a simple candy activity becomes a great introduction to collecting, representing, and comparing data.
Gummy Bear Addition Cards
The printable also includes 12 addition cards for practicing addition up to 10.
Kids can count the gummy bear pictures to solve each problem or model the equations with real gummy bears.
For an extra hands-on approach, have kids build each addition problem on the ten frame before solving it.
Why Use Hands-On Math Activities?
Young children often understand abstract math ideas more easily when they can see and manipulate real objects.
Instead of only seeing 3+2=5Â on a worksheet, kids can physically count three gummy bears, add two more, and see that there are now five.
The gummy bears also make it easy to explore several math concepts with the same manipulatives—sorting, counting, patterns, addition, subtraction, ten frames, and graphing.
And using a special treat every once in a while certainly doesn’t hurt the enthusiasm level!
Get the Gummy Bear Math Printable
Want to try all four activities?
The Gummy Bear Math printable set includes the ten frame, pattern cards, graphing activity, addition cards, and colorful gummy bear pieces for hands-on math practice.
GET THE GUMMY BEAR MATH PRINTABLE
Use real gummy bears or the included printable pieces for an easy preschool or early elementary math activity.
What We Love About Candy Math Activities:
We absolutely love doing math with candy at our house. This Gummy Bear Math lesson was another favorite!
Using candy with our math lesson is a special thing that we don’t do every day, just every so often. Â When you involve food or treats with learning kids are really going to remember it!
There is research done that says when in incorporate more senses in your teaching, it will be remembered and internalized more. So that’s what I try to do often. It doesn’t always have to be food, but sights, touch, smell, etc. It’s all important to add into your teaching!
Try Gummy Bear Science, Too!
Have gummy bears left over?
Turn them into a science activity with my Edible Gummy Bear Slime experiment. It’s a fun way to move from gummy bear math into hands-on science.
More Edible Math Activities
If your kids enjoyed Gummy Bear Math, try another hands-on math activity:
Hershey Fractions Printable Math Cards
