Worksheet Kindergarten Math
Clean the Pond: A Kindergarten Counting and Sorting Worksheet
A kindergarten worksheet where students sort pond pictures into animals and trash, count and compare each group, and solve a subtraction story about picking up litter.
Objectives
- Students will classify pictures into a group that belongs in a pond and a group that does not.
- Students will count each group and compare them as equal or one group having more.
- Students will solve a subtraction word problem within 10 about picking up trash from a pond.
Vocabulary
Key words: pond, belongs, trash, count
Teacher overview
A pond is home to fish, frogs, and turtles, but sometimes trash blows in or gets dropped by people nearby. This worksheet uses one pond scene for every item, so students sort, count, and compare within a single picture instead of jumping between unrelated scenes. Read each item aloud and let students point to or circle their answers if writing numerals independently is still difficult.
A worked example for the teacher to model first: hold up a picture of a turtle and a picture of a plastic bag. Ask which one lives in the pond and which one does not belong there, then count how many of each kind of picture the class can find.
Print the page with one large pond scene showing a fish, a frog, a turtle, a bottle, a can, and a bag, each big enough to circle.
Student Worksheet
- Look at the pond. A fish swims in the water. Does a fish belong in the pond?
- A plastic bottle floats in the water. Does a bottle belong in the pond?
- Look at 6 pictures: fish, frog, turtle, bottle, can, and bag. Circle the 3 pictures that belong in the pond.
- Count the pictures that belong in the pond. How many are there?
- Count the pictures that do not belong in the pond. How many are there?
- Compare your two counts. Are the groups equal, or does one group have more?
- Name one animal that belongs in the pond.
- The pond has 3 pieces of trash. A class picks up 2 pieces. How many pieces of trash are left in the pond?
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: Yes. A fish lives in water, so it belongs in the pond.
- Answer: No. A bottle is trash, not a living thing that belongs in the pond.
- Answer: Fish, frog, and turtle. These three animals live in or near pond water.
- Answer: 3 pictures. Fish, frog, and turtle make 3 pictures that belong in the pond.
- Answer: 3 pictures. Bottle, can, and bag make 3 pictures that do not belong in the pond.
- Answer: Equal. 3 pictures belong and 3 pictures do not belong, the same amount in each group.
- Answer: Fish, frog, or turtle, any one animal shown living in the pond.
- Answer: 1 piece. 3 pieces of trash minus the 2 picked up is 3 − 2 = 1 piece left.
Differentiation
Support
Provide real or laminated picture cards for the 6 items that students can physically move into two piles instead of circling on paper, and let students touch each card once while counting out loud.
Extension
Ask students to think of one more animal and one more piece of trash that could show up at a pond, draw each one, add it to the correct pile, and recount both groups.
ELL supports
Pre-teach belongs and trash with a simple sorting demonstration using two real objects, a small toy fish and a candy wrapper. Allow students to answer items 1, 2, and 7 by pointing to the correct picture instead of speaking a full sentence.
Extensions
Take the class on a short walk around the school to look for any litter near a drain, ditch, or puddle, and count how many pieces the class picks up together. Students should wear gloves, stay back from any water, and leave anything sharp for an adult to pick up. Pair this worksheet with a read-aloud picture book about a pond habitat to build vocabulary for the animals shown in the pictures.