A few years ago I created a fun sign-in where students wrote their name on a post-it note and added it to a large ten frame. I decided to re-visit the idea of signing in on a ten frame but this time with more of a focus on the math.

Sign-In Table

Adding to the Ten Frames

Once students had written their name on their pumpkin they headed over to the ten frame bulletin board where they added their pumpkin to the large ten frame by matching the color and placement of the pumpkin on the smaller ten frame. This photo shows a close up of two of the small sample ten frames next to their partially filled in large ten frames.

Print Work

Click here to print the small ten frames. I made the larger ten frames using large sheets of inch graph paper. There are 10 large ten frames so in order to have enough colored pumpkins, you’ll need to print:

You’ll have some pumpkins left over since you’ll be printing 6 per sheet.

Note: I ended up not using 0 + 10 = 10.

Station Facilitators

To make sure participants understood what to do, I had one of my fifth grade station facilitators available to help guide them as they placed their pumpkins.

I love using fifth graders and up to run the stations. It’s a great leadership opportunity and the younger kiddos really look up to them. Here’s a blog I wrote about students as station facilitators.

A Variety of Themes

Although I did this activity in the fall and used pumpkins, the number of different themes that can be used is endless. For example, you could use pink and red hearts for Valentine’s day. Or light and dark green shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day. Or shapes and colors from whatever theme your students happen to be learning about.

Math Goals

I had several goals for this activity. One was a simple matching activity. Students needed to place their pumpkin by matching it to the correct color pumpkin on the smaller ten frame. This is not always easy for the littles and usually involves counting squares in order to place correctly.

My second goal was to have students notice combinations of 10. So I included the matching pumpkin equations underneath the smaller ten frames. If you look closely at the photo at the top, you’ll see the equations starting with 1 + 9 = 10.

My third goal was to have students notice that 3 + 7 gave the same answer as 7 + 3. We call these addition turn around facts – or the commutative property of addition.

I realize that during a Family Math Night event most students won’t be standing in front of the pumpkins thinking about the math. To have that happen, I could have turned this into one of my What Do You Notice? activities. But what I ended up doing was leaving the ten frames up in the multi-use room. This allowed for classrooms to come in the next day and discuss what they saw. These math talks generate a lot of great mathematical observations. Plus, it gets the students who were not at the event excited about coming to the next one!

For more fun sign-in “sheets” visit our Sign-In Resources page. And if you’re interested in hosting a super fun Family Math Night event and have questions, feel free to reach out!