You say, “Oh no!” But I say, “Oh yes!” Summer math is fun when you add a little creativity. Stick with me, literally, and discover a great way to make sure that your kiddos keep on practicing and learning about math, even when they are on summer break. Read on to learn more about this fun math activity for kids.

Math is definitely not tied to a desk indoors. Put away the workbooks and pencils and bring some cardboard, permanent markers or paint, scissors and BAM! Tape outside for some engaging math fun. Heck, you can even take this math activity to the campground, because we are Counting Campers! Read on to learn how to make some simple tents and campers for counting fun. These little tents are so cute and simple to create. And when you are all done, you are set for small world play and counting fun!

Let’s get started!

Cut a piece of cardboard into strips. I made mine about 4 inches wide and 18 inches long. Now  fold the strip into an A-frame. Apply BAM! Tape masking tape to hold the frame together at the top. You should now have a sturdy little A-frame tent.

Go ahead and make several tents. We made 10, because our activity focuses on counting, adding and subtracting with 1 through 10.

 Now you can decorate the tents with BAM! Tape masking tape. Make the tents distinct with lots of fun color and design. You can even add other decorations if you want, maybe moss? 

We labeled our tents 1 through 10, because we are creating a simple counting game. You can even make a “+” tent, “-“ tent and “=“ tent if you are targeting math problems.

Next up, get outside and hit the trail to collect some rocks. We collected rocks along the river, because we wanted to have smooth ones to draw faces on. And that is what we did! We had oodles of fun creating our campers’ faces, and some are super silly. There are a few movie characters if you can find them.

After you have created your campers, it’s time to do some Math! But it’s okay, because little hands get to pick up rocks with funny faces and put them in cute little tents together. We even made a little campfire for our campers. Yes, let your kiddo add some pretend play fun to their math. That’s how you get them to ask to do more math! 

For our simple counting, we filled each tent with campers based on the number on the tent. Then we did some basic problem solving. We put random numbers of campers in each tent and either added or took away campers to match up with the number on the tent.

After the counting is done, we just let the campers go in whatever tent they wanted to. Looks like our “famous” campers stuck together in tent 5!

To “sum it all up” summer math is fun with a little creativity and lots of play. I sure hope that you put together some of these cute little tents for some fun math!

Do you encourage your child to practice math in the summer? How do you keep math fun and engaging? Tell us in the comments.