Grouping/Sharing Mats – Pet Food Bowls

Grouping/Sharing Mats – Pet Food Bowls

These Pet Food Bowls Grouping/Sharing Mats are fantastic for helping children develop an understanding of the concepts of multiplication and division. Present these mats with a collection of manipulatives (small objects) for the children to use to make equal groups (multiplication) or share out objects equally (division).

Features:

* Contains mats for 2 groups up to 10 groups.

* Can be used for both grouping (multiplication) and sharing (division).

* Contains versions without the pet food in the image (incase this confuses their number work).

* Contains versions with a plain white background - only the bowls - for if you need to use less ink.

* Can be used for multiple ability levels/age groups, depending on whether you use them just for sharing/grouping or whether you add recording or reading equations.

* Laminate for longevity and reuse over and over.

Ideas for Use:

* Little plastic bones (a lot of people have these for Halloween), beads or balls of play dough go really well with the pet food bowls as manipulatives.

* Grouping: Make up a little story with the children about what they are doing eg. The puppies need 5 little bones each for dinner. You may like to ask them questions such as “How many puppy bowls are there?”, “Do they all have the same amount?” “How many bones are there altogether?”.

* Sharing: Start with an initial amount of bones eg. 10, then the mat provides the number of groups they need to share those 10 bones between. How many bones do they get each? Are there any left over?

* If the child/children are ready for beginning to record what they are doing, you can use a whiteboard for them to write eg. 3x5=15 or 10÷2=5. You could also use our multiplication or division cards (we have Puppy ones!) to give the student an equation to make on the mat. This helps to bridge the understanding of what they are doing with sharing or grouping and the formal multiplication or division equation. Note: this is only for when they are ready, don’t try to push the formal equation too soon. They need to understand the concept first.

Tip! While the children are developing an understanding of what they are doing, use words like “shared between” or “groups of” rather than “divided by” or “times” as this makes it easier for them to understand the concept.

If the child/children are ready to start recording, we have multiplication mats with the recording written on them (eg. 6 groups of _ =_). You can laminate them or put them in a dry erase pouch for the children to record with dry erase markers. They can be reused over and over again!

Follow Wunderparks on social media for an endless stream of ideas!

WunderSparks (Facebook) or WunderSparks (Instagram).

For best results, print using “high quality” print settings and good quality paper (higher gsm) or card (check your printer’s specifications for how high a gsm it can print with).