Pots of Gold Coins Math Activities

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day with pots of gold and lots of math fun!

Kindergarten Common Core Standard:

Counting and Cardinality: Count to tell the number of objects
K.CC.B.4b Understand that the last number name said tells the number of objects counted. The number of objects is the same regardless of their arrangement or the order in which they were counted.

Watch out for the Leprechaun! Make 5 Game

Your preschool and kindergarten children will have a great time recovering gold coins from the leprechaun's hiding place.

What you need:
Brown lunch bag or small green gift bag
Yellow and orange craft foam or cardstock paper or reuse plastic green and gold coins from activity below.
Pots of Gold Play Mat printable
Scissors

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

What you do:

Print the Pot of Gold Play Mats printables and cut out. Trace the circle pattern on yellow and orange craft foam to make 12 gold coins. Glue one leprechaun on top of an orange craft foam circle and one leprechaun on top of a yellow craft foam circle. Place all the gold coins inside the brown paper lunch bag.

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

Game Play:
Each player gets a Pot of Gold Play Mat and a Pot of Gold Recording Sheet. Explain that the leprechaun has hidden his gold coins inside the paper bag. Taking turns and without looking, each player pulls a gold coin from the lunch bag and places it on his/her Pot of Gold Play Mat. If the player pulls out a leprechaun, he/she has to return all of his/her gold coins to the bag. The leprechaun circle will get discarded. The game ends when both players have placed 5 gold coins on their mats. Have children compare their coins (i.e., two yellow coins and three orange coins, four orange coins and one yellow coin, five yellow coins and zero orange coins, etc.).

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

Pots of Gold: Sums of 5 Math Activity

What you need:

Pot of Gold Pattern printable
Black construction paper
White crayon
Plastic green and gold coins
Glue
Scissors

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

What you do:

Print the Pot of Gold Pattern printable and trace one per child onto black construction paper in white crayon. Let children write the number 5 in white crayon in the center of each pot.

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

Give each child a traced pot of gold to cut out. Let each child select any combination of green and gold coins to equal 5. Have children glue their coin combinations to the tops of their pots. Once pots dry, have children compare and contrast the different ways they made 5 (i.e., two gold coins and three green coins, four green coins and one gold coin, five gold coins and zero green coins, etc.). Children can sort and graph the pots as part of the discussion.

Patterns with Gold and Green Coins

Preschool Activities:

Media Root

Place any leftover green and gold coins in a black plastic bowl or pot. Let children use the coins to make patterns, such as ababab, aabbaabb, abbaabba, etc. Take photographs of their completed patterns and post them in an area of the room where they can be referenced to name and copy the patterns shown.