Tomorrow is World Mosquito Day! This makes me chuckle a bit because it sounds like we should be celebrating those blood-sucking little vampires. But after some digging, I found that this “holiday” celebrates the anniversary of the day (August 20, 1897) that Sir Ronald Ross, a British scientist, discovered that mosquitoes transmit the malaria parasite. The presence of mosquitoes can be anything from a mild annoyance to a genuine health concern. So to take out any frustrations you have with these little critters, guide students in this hand-slapping mosquito-themed math idea! 🙂
A Summertime Pest
Click here to get the five frame and hand cards. Then cut them out and place them at a table. Prepare number cards from 0–5 and stack them facedown. Ask a small group of students to pretend they are in a tent on a camping trip and there are 5 mosquitoes inside the tent! Have a child choose a card and identify its number. Have a different youngster count out the corresponding number of hand cards and place them on the five frame, starting from the left. Say, “We’ve smacked [number] mosquitoes!” Have students
smack the table with their hands to represent the number. Ask, “How many mosquitoes are left in the tent?” Prompt a child to identify the number without counting. Then have students pretend to run out of the tent. Remove the cards and play another round of this fun game.