The concept of subtraction is best learned and understood through storytelling. When young children see numbers embedded in a story that they are interested in, they pay more attention to figure out the meanings and relations of the numbers. They can understand the concept of subtraction way before they learn the subtraction equation, which is the natural way for young children to learn math-just like when we learn our language, we always figure out the meaning of a word before we learn how to read and spell it. We turn the popular book “Five Little Monkeys” storyline into a math game, so that the “unknow” in the subtraction equation is turned into the unseen monkeys hidden in the blanket.
Recommended Age kindergarten, 1st grade
Math Skills Subtraction
Things Needed 5-10 small stuffed animals, a small blanket/bath towel
Game Play
- Lay the blanket flat on the flour.
- Decide with your child how many monkeys (stuffed animals) you want to put on the blanket, and then put that many monkeys on the blanket. Start with a smaller number, like 2 or 3. When your child gets the idea after playing it onceor twice, you can put a larger number of monkeys on the blanket.
- Pick up the blanket (with monkeys in it) by the corners. You can either do it yourselt or hold it with your child. Confirm with your child that you both remember how many monkeys you put in the blanket.
- Shake the blanket while saying “xxx (the number of monkeys you put in) monekys jumping on the bed” until some monkeys fall off the blanket. Then quickly fold close the blanket so the number of monkeys left in the blanket is hidden. It’s ok to shake off either all or none monkeys sometimes.
- Look at the monkeys that have fallen off, with your child, figure out how many have fallen off, and say “xxx (the number fallen) fell down, and how many are left?”
- Let your child guess how many monkeys are left in the blanket. Once they give a guess, open up the blanket and show the monkeys left in the blanket.
- Remember to start with a smaller number, then increase gradually.
- When the number of monkeys gets bigger, it becomes a lot harder for a child to figure out the exact number of monkeys left in the blanket. Give your children a good cheer and a high-five when they make a good guess. For example, if you start with 5, and 3 fall off, your child guess that 3 are left. Or if you start with 10, and 4 fall off, your child guess that 5 are left. Those are amazing guesses (estimations) because they show that your children truly understand the relations of the numbers in the story. That is the key to success when they encounter word problems in higher grades.
Variations
Variations for different number of players:
The adult and child can decide on the numbers of monkeys and shake the blanket together. 
and 
: Let the children take turn to decide how many monkeys should be put on the blanket to start with. Children can also take turn to shake the blanket with the adult.
Warning: An adult should always be one of the person (if not the only person) who shake the blanket. If you let the kids be in charge of shaking the monkeys off, it’s almost guarantee that there will be zero monkey left in the blanket, EVERY SINGLE TIME!
