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Worksheet Kindergarten Health & Consumer Science

Coach Wren's Water Break Cups: A Kindergarten Counting Page

A kindergarten gym water-station worksheet with nine counting, adding, and comparing questions within ten and one question on why the body needs water.

Objectives

  1. Students will solve addition and subtraction word problems within 10 about water break cups.
  2. Students will compare two groups of cups or bottles and tell which has more, fewer, or the same.
  3. Students will tell one reason the body needs water after hard play.

Vocabulary

Key words: cup, tray, more, fewer, same

Teacher overview

Coach Wren keeps a small table of paper cups by the gym door at Tanner Hill School, and the class takes a water break there after every hard run. This worksheet puts the kindergarten number work inside that routine, so the counting, adding, and comparing all happen with cups and bottles the children have handled themselves. Every quantity stays within ten, and every question states its own numbers so a child can solve it with counters or a drawing.

Read each item aloud. Kindergartners at this point in the year are not expected to read the questions themselves, and the reading aloud also lets you slow down on the comparing items, which are the ones children most often answer by guessing. A common early mistake is answering "more" for whichever group is named second, so watch for children who answer before they count.

Coach Wren's Water Break Cups: A Kindergarten Counting Page — Kindergarten Health & Consumer Science
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Read aloud: Coach Wren keeps cups by the gym door. The class runs hard. Then the class takes a water break.

  1. Coach Wren fills 4 blue cups. She fills 3 green cups. How many cups is that in all? Draw the cups. Write the number.
  2. There are 8 cups on the tray. Kids take 2 cups. How many cups are left on the tray? Draw and write.
  3. The red tray has 5 cups. The blue tray has 3 cups. Which tray has more cups? Write the number of cups on that tray.
  4. Coach Wren sets out 6 cups. Six kids come to drink. Is there a cup for each kid? Write the number of cups.
  5. Coach Wren fills 5 cups. Then she fills 2 more. How many cups is that in all? Draw and write.
  6. There are 9 cups by the door. Kids take 4 cups. How many cups are left? Draw and write.
  7. Row A has 8 water bottles in a line. Count the bottles in Row A. How many bottles?
  8. Row A has 8 bottles. Row B has 5 bottles. Which row has fewer bottles? Write that number.
  9. Coach Wren had 10 cups. She gave 3 cups to the red team. How many cups are left for the blue team? Draw and write.
  10. Tell your teacher one reason your body needs water when you run hard.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: 7 cups.
    4 blue cups and 3 green cups make 7. Children may count all seven drawn cups or count on from 4.
  2. Answer: 6 cups.
    8 cups take away 2 cups leaves 6. A drawing with two cups crossed out shows the work.
  3. Answer: 5 cups.
    The red tray has more, because 5 is greater than 3. Matching cups one to one leaves two red cups with no partner.
  4. Answer: 6 cups.
    There are 6 cups and 6 children, so the groups are equal and every child gets one. Accept "the same" or "equal" said aloud alongside the number.
  5. Answer: 7 cups.
    5 cups and 2 more cups make 7. This is the same total as item 1 with a different pair of numbers, which is worth pointing out during review.
  6. Answer: 5 cups.
    9 cups take away 4 cups leaves 5.
  7. Answer: 8 bottles.
    Row A holds 8 bottles in a line. Children should touch each bottle once as they count.
  8. Answer: 5 bottles.
    Row B has fewer, because 5 is less than 8.
  9. Answer: 7 cups.
    10 cups take away 3 cups leaves 7 for the blue team.
  10. Answer: Because running makes the body hot and thirsty.
    Accept any reason a child can say in their own words, including that they sweat, that they feel dry, or that water helps them cool off. Spoken answers are the expectation here.

Differentiation

Support

Give the child ten counters and a paper plate to build each problem before drawing it. Cover all but one item with a blank sheet so only the current question shows. For items 3, 4, and 8, lay the two groups of counters in matching rows so the leftover counters are visible without counting.

Extension

After item 9, ask the child to write a new water break problem of their own using numbers within ten, then trade papers with a partner and solve each other's. For item 10, ask them to give two reasons rather than one and to say which reason they think matters more.

ELL supports

Pre-teach cup, tray, row, more, fewer, and left by setting the real objects on a table and moving them while saying each word. Read every item twice, once at normal pace and once slowly. Accept item 10 answered with a drawing, a gesture, or a sentence in the home language.

Extensions

Set up the same cups on a real table and let the class act out three of the problems with water in the cups rather than drawings, which turns the subtraction items into something children can see. Keep a class tally of water breaks for one week and compare the count from a rainy week with the count from a hot week.