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Goldfishin' with Addition



Hey everyone! What is it about those Goldfish Crackers that kiddos love? I mean, seriously, the kids go CRAZY for them! Since these are so popular with my students, they are a great motivator! 

There are so many great ways to use these crackers in your classroom! Since I'm working on adding with one of my students, these fit in perfectly in one of our lessons. One problem I have had when teaching addition is getting students to use their strategies. Using manipulatives is always a great strategy to begin with so... Goldfishin' for addition began! 

To get started with some fishin' for addition, you will need: Goldfish Crackers (I bought the carton seen above), paper clips, pencils, recording sheets, and an addition mat to place the goldfish on. Don't worry, you can download the recording sheets and addition mat free towards the end of this blog post!


Make sure you print and copy enough recording sheets for your students. You may want to laminate the addition mat. I've included a black and white version if you don't have access to a color printer. 

Spinning to find the addends 

To get started, students will use their paperclip and pencil to spin to find their addends. They can record the numbers on the recording sheet to make an addition sentence. 




Once students have their addition sentence, they can use the Goldfish Crackers as counters. They can model their addition sentence in each fish bowl. 

Counting them up

Record the answer

Once the addition sentence has been modeled with the manipulaitves, students will count them up to find their answer. They can record their answer on the line. 


Of course the big questions is always, "Can I eat them now?" Letting your students eat up all of the manipulatives definitely makes for an easy clean up! Fun, engaging, and easy clean up!? Yes, please!

To get this just click the image below or here! If you want to grab this later, you can also pin the image below to save it! 



Happy Teaching,


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