Math Games for Kids- Outdoor Math Web

Spider webs on my mind lately.  I think it is because our spider web trellis plant has come back again this summer. Right across from the spider web trellis I drew a spider web with chalk on the backyard fence. In various areas of the web, I wrote numbers. The numbers were written large in the large areas and small in the small areas of the web.

How did I make it?

In my mind I pictured a beautifully symmetrical web with sections that were all the same size. It just didn’t turn out that way. Instead it looks more like the spider web that a real spider would probably make. It is long and broad in some areas and narrow in others.

The wood on the fence is over ten years old. It is a little worn and bumpy in places. It made it a little challenging to write numbers on. In my head before we started this project the numbers were all the same size and very clear.

How did we play with the web?

We did several math games for kids with the web each involved throwing a ball with a hand drawn spider on it at the web or walking up to the web and tapping the ball.

Even and Odd Number Search

JDaniel was asked to tap all the even numbers on the web and to read me each number as he did. Then we did the same thing for odd numbers. Many of the number are displayed more than one. I just had him tap of each number once. We could easily have tapped all of them.

Finding the Sum

We both took turns calling out number facts and then had to look for the sum of the numbers that were called out. The largest number on the web was 11 so, all the number facts tended to work with small numbers that could added equal a number.

Finding the Difference

By finding the number that represented the difference in subtraction sentence we got to work with some pretty big number sentences. Subtraction sentences like 43-40= are big and yet have differences that appeared on the web.

What Number Comes Next

This was one of the math  games for kids that we threw the ball at the web for. We took turns throwing the ball at the web and sharing what number would come next.

Building a Number Sentence to Add

This game involved throwing or tapping the ball twice at or onto the web. We then had to add the two numbers to find the sum. The number sentences were simple and didn’t go above 22 as the sum, but it was still fun.

Building a Number Sentence to Subtract

This game is the opposite of the Building Number Sentences to Subtract in that you will need to subtract the big number that is selected from the small number.

Spider Movements Number Match

We can up with some movements that spider might do like crawl, jump with arms waving, and backing down a web (walking backwards). We took turns throwing the ball and calling out a movement that the other person needed to do that number of times.

Skip Counting

This was one of the math games for kids that required tapping the ball. We started by tapping on the 2 tapped and then counting the numbers that would come next skip counting by twos. We tried skip counting by threes, but found we need a little work on the threes.

I bet you can come up with some other math games for kids using a chalk web outside.

Here are some other outdoor chalk learning activities:

Hopping with Chalk Bunnies

Playing Outside with Chalk