Summer Math Activities for Preschool & Elementary using Snow Cones
Use these Summer Math Activities to cool off with Snow Cones on a hot summer day.
Snow cones & shaved ice are popular all over the world! Get ideas and printables to help your preschool and elementary kiddos practice their math skills with these shaved ice-themed summer math activities.
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Snow cones (or shave ice–depending on who you talk to or where you live) are a traditional part of our summer activities every year. Probably because it’s one of the simplest ways to turn an ordinary summer day into an awesome day for your kiddos.
Since snow cones are such a part of our summer anyway, I created several ways to sneak in some summer math activities for snow cones.
First, cooking always involves math and fractions, right? Let your kids help you make some cold snow cones to enjoy on a hot day as one of the summer math activities for your kiddos.
Next, in the list of summer math activities for your kids is finding out what the favorite snow cone flavor is amongst family and friends. Have your kids survey their friends and family to discover the favorite flavor for snow cones using the Tallying and Graphing worksheet.
Then, your younger kiddos can practice patterning with the Snow Cones Patterning worksheets while your older kids can learn about regional language differences & how people from different areas call things by different names. For example, snow cones are often called shave ice or shaved ice, or even snocone, depending on where the person lives or grew up.
Finally, learn more about Hawai’i, where shave ice is a very popular treat, with some book recommendations.
Summer Math Activities: Make homemade snow cones.
First of all, you should make some snow cones. It’s so easy and your kids will think your regular day has turned into a special day! Try out some different types of flavorings and see which is your family’s favorite!
We have one of those Snoopy snow-cone makers that one of my kids got as a birthday gift years ago. But you can also use a blender or even just the crushed ice from your fridge.
Updated: my kids gave me a cute aqua snow-cone maker for my birthday as an upgrade from their Snoopy one, which was a bit slow if you were making more than one or two snow cones at a time. It was very thoughtful of them LOL
Or there’s this retro look sno-cone maker that comes in four different colors.
We like these re-usable silicone snow-cone holders to make it seem more authentic, but plastic cups work just as well.
Here are some snow cone flavoring recipes to try:
- Dye-free Fruit Juice Snow Cones at Five Heart Home.
- All-Natural Fruit Snow Cones at A Modern Homestead.
- Concentrated Fruit Juice Snow Cones at Tikki Do.
- Tiger’s Blood Snow Cones at Hip and Simple
- Plain ol’ Kool-Aid Snow Cones at Crafty Morning
Or for a fun alternative, try this science project from Science Sparks to create a slushie without using your freezer.
My kids can’t have food coloring (it really increases their ADHD symptoms) so we always make the fruit juice kind with a can of frozen juice concentrate. We like to keep the thawed fruit juice concentrate in a plastic bottle in the fridge, so we can have a snow cone anytime.
Summer Math Activities for Snow Cones
Tallying & Graphing
After you make snow cones, let your kids practice tallying and graphing by asking friends and family what their favorite flavor is.
Use the Snow Cones Favorite Flavor Tally & Graph in the Free Resource Library to work on counting with tally marks and bar graphing to find out which is the favorite flavor.
The printable has the flavors Cherry, Blue Raspberry, Grape, and Tiger’s Blood, but you can easily substitute different flavors if you want.
Patterning
Next, have your younger kiddos in preschool and elementary practice their math patterning skills with the Snow Cone Patterns Worksheets printables. There are 4 pages of math patterning practice with ABAB, ABBABB, ABCABC, and AABAAB types of patterns. Find the Snow Cone Patterns Worksheets in the Snow Cone Math Printables Packet in the Whole Child Homeschool Resource Store.
Summer Math Activities: Tallying
Regional colloquialisms: Word Wars
SnoCone, Snow Cone, Shave Ice, or Shaved Ice? For a bit of sociology, find out from your friends and family that live far away from you what they call different things. For example, I grew up calling sodas, Coke. Didn’t matter if it was Coke, Pepsi, or root beer, it was all Coke. What do you call carbonated beverages?
For this summer math activity, print out the Word Wars Picture Cards from the Snow Cone Math Printables Packet and have your kids show them to friends and family; and ask them what the picture is called.
Then record their responses on the Snow Cone Math: Word Wars Chart in the Snow Cone Math Printables Packet available in the Whole Child Homeschool Resource Store.
Edited to add: One of the Whole Child Homeschool moms is part of a family owned Ice Company in the Pittsburgh area and she tells me that
“Actually, in terms of texture, snow cones and shaved ice are completely different treats!Snow cones are made from crushed ice (like tiny hail!), which gives you crunch-able bits of flavor. The ice is scooped into the cone or cup and flavor is poured on. Shaved ice is actually shaved with a blade from a block of ice. The flakes fall into the cup forming “snow” which is then soaked with flavor!”
Anna Mastro of Mastro Ice
More Snow Cones and Summer Math Activities
Shave Ice is a very popular treat in Hawai’i. Learn more about Hawai’i with these books and a movie:
Toddlers: Shave Ice in Hawai’i by Beachhouse Publishing
Preschoolers: Aloha is… By Tammy Paikai
Elementary: A is for Aloha: A Hawai’i Alphabet by U’ilana Goldsberry
Upper Elementary: Watch Princess Kaiulani on Amazon Prime 2010 PG
More Fun Summer Activities
Are you ready for some extra time to relax while you add in some fun learning? I’ve learned over the years, the key to a fun, relaxing summer that includes learning – is planning! Use these fun resources this summer!
For kids that love to “play school” with their younger siblings, give them this list of summer words to use for spelling practice, or to make their own word find puzzles or crossword puzzles. My older girls loved doing this for their little brother!
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Summer…the Perfect Time for In-depth Child-Directed Learning! |
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