Rocket Math

In this hands-on activity, students color and cut out rockets that are used as manipulatives to help them develop number sense, counting, addition and subtraction skills.

• Color, cut out, laminate and prepare rocket shapes used in Part 1 and Extensions.
• If using a whiteboard or flannel board, you may need to affix magnetic or Velcro strips to the small rocket shapes to free your hands while keeping the items on display.
• Depending on students’ fine motor skills and lesson time constraints, consider having students color and cut rocket shapes needed in Part 2 prior to the lesson.
• This activity can be completed in one session, or each part can be completed on separate days.

Artist's rendering of the NASA Space Launch System (SLS) launch vehicle.

Humans have been experimenting with rockets and the concepts involved in rocket flight for nearly 1,000 years. Modern rocket pioneers created what was the stuff of science fiction only 100 years ago: rocket-propelled devices that could explore land, sea, air and space. With the application of advanced scientific and engineering principles, rockets graduated from novelties to serious devices for commerce, war, travel and research.

Today, rockets have made some of the most amazing discoveries of our time possible. Rockets have launched spacecraft to every planet in the solar system and even sent humans to the Moon.

NASA’s Artemis program will return humans to the Moon by sending the first woman and the first person of color to the lunar surface. A foundational piece of the program is NASA’s Space Launch System, or SLS, a rocket that will allow for human exploration beyond Earth’s orbit. SLS will be used in the Artemis program for a series of uncrewed and crewed missions, eventually carrying astronauts to the Moon during the Artemis III mission. NASA plans to continue sending missions to the Moon about once a year after that while also using SLS to launch robotic scientific missions to places like the Moon, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter.

Observe students as they repeat this activity. Discuss and evaluate their drawings. Ensure that each drawing has a total of five rockets (or has the appropriate number of rockets if using more or fewer).

Allow students to practice finding the missing addend using a number line from 0 to 10.

1. Introduce or review the concept of a number line.
2. Place a number line on the floor (premade, or with masking tape and marker).
3. Color and cut out the large rocket (See Materials and Management).
4. Students place the rocket at the start of the number line, ready to launch.
5. Students or the teacher roll a die. Move the rocket the appropriate number of spaces on the number line.
6. Continue to roll the die and move the rocket the appropriate number of spaces until the rocket reaches 10. For example, the student rolls a 6 and moves the rocket to the 6. The student rolls a 1 and moves the rocket to the 7. The student would continue to roll the die until a total of 3 is rolled on the die to reach 10. If the numeral rolled is greater than the number needed to reach 10, don’t move the rocket forward. Roll again until the rocket is moved to the 10 without going past.
7. When the rocket reaches 10, have students reverse the direction of the rocket. Roll the die until the rocket returns to 0.
8. Help students develop ways to record the data. Encourage them to use the data in simple addition and subtraction sentences. If more appropriate, fold the number line in half, and have students roll a die to reach 5.

On the playground:

1. Draw a row of 11 squares on the pavement with sidewalk chalk.
2. Label each square with a numeral from 0 to 10.
3. Demonstrate to students how to play this math version of hopscotch. The hopscotch squares become a number line.
4. A student stands in the 0 square. Roll a die. The number on the die determines the number of squares that the student jumps.
5. Students roll the die and jump the appropriate number of squares until they reach 10. If the numeral is greater than the number needed to reach 10, do not jump past ten and instead roll again.
6. When the student reaches 10, turn around and repeat the activity to reach 0.
7. Encourage students to record the data in simple addition and subtraction sentences.