Building Early Foundations in Kindergarten Mathematics

…and that is why I keep going back to the basics when we hit the first stumbling block of the term. You know how it goes. If a kindergartner cannot visualize what it means to take away one from a group, the move to larger numbers just becomes a chore of memorization rather than actual math. This is exactly where the lesson Adding and Taking Away fits into your schedule. It is designed to get them comfortable with the physical and mental process of changing quantities, which is the bedrock for everything they will do in first grade.

This kindergarten mathematics lesson centers on the idea that addition is just putting things together and subtraction is taking them apart. Students move through simple, concrete scenarios to understand these operations. The material asks students to represent these ideas using objects, drawings, finger counting, or even claps. It is a quick hit, usually taking about 15 minutes, which makes it perfect for a whole-class assignment or for a student who missed the week and needs to get back on track without feeling buried. The core objective is straightforward: “I can add and take away things to find how many.”

What the lesson actually asks students to do

The lesson starts by connecting those early counting skills to basic operations. By using kindergarten addition and subtraction practice, students learn to model situations before they ever worry about writing an equation. The curriculum focuses heavily on the standard CA.MATH.K.OA.1, which asks students to represent these operations in various ways, from verbal explanations to acting out real-world scenarios. This is the California-adopted standard, and it is the same goal we are aiming for in districts like Moreno Valley Unified, Pomona Unified, Corning Union Elementary School District, and Merced City Elementary School District.

What I appreciate is that the lesson does not just stop at representation. It builds directly into CA.MATH.K.OA.5, which pushes students to achieve fluency within five. This part of the standard is about automaticity, moving them toward knowing these small sums without having to count every single time. By working on these two standards together, the students start to see the relationship between the quantities they can touch and the abstract numbers on a page.

Where students slip

I see many students try to jump to equations too fast. They want to write the numbers because that looks like what school is supposed to be. But if they skip the part where they act it out with their fingers or drawings, they lose the conceptual understanding. The lesson encourages them to use sounds, like claps, to represent adding one more or taking one away. Encourage your students to go slow with this. If they cannot model a problem with a simple drawing, they are not ready for the symbolic representation. Keeping the work within five is intentional, so resist the urge to jump into higher numbers until they have this foundation solid.

This material is excellent for intervention when you have a small group that just needs to see the concrete objects one more time before moving on. It is also a very clean lesson for a substitute day because it does not require a massive setup or a pile of manipulatives you do not have on hand. It is just clean, focused work on the logic of changing sets.

Why this matters for the long term

If they miss the chance to really internalize what it means to “take from” a group of five, they will hit a wall when you start introducing double-digit addition or subtraction later in the year. I treat this as a mandatory check-in. If a student is still struggling to represent their thoughts with a drawing, do not be afraid to pull them back to this lesson for a refresher. It is worth the time, and it saves you so much effort once you get to those more complex word problems where they have to visualize the whole situation for themselves.