Formal Observation 

 
Name:  Nicole Castillo 

Date:  April 26, 2018 

Lesson Title:  Subtraction Bowling 

Grade Level:  Kindergarten 

Standards:  Successful inclusion of the following standards will 

occur: 
1. K.OA.A.1 - Represent addition and 
subtraction with objects, fingers, mental 
images, drawings, sounds (e.g., claps), acting 
out situations, verbal explanations, 
expressions, or equations.   
2. K.OA.A.2 - Solve addition and subtraction 
word problems, and add and subtract within 
10, e.g., by using objects or drawings to 
represent the problem. 
3. K.OA.A.3 - Decompose numbers less than or 
equal to 10 into pairs in more than one way, 
e.g., by using objects or drawings, and 
record each decomposition by a drawing or 
equation (e.g., 5 = 2 + 3 and 5 = 4 + 1). 

Subject Area / Content Standard:  Mathematics 

 
 
Preparation 
Prerequisites:  

By this point, students have a pretty solid understanding of addition up to 5. They have also had a lot of 
practice with composing and decomposing numbers up to 10 through manipulative play and word stories. 

Context: 

This lesson will be taught as part of a Subtraction Unit. After this unit, students will have a stronger 
understanding of subtraction and will continue to use manipulatives to show understanding as they learn 
how to solve it in an equation. 

Vocabulary: 

The following vocabulary will be taught and reinforced as part of this lesson: 
- Subtraction 
- Left (as in how many are left?) 
- Separate 
- Take Away 
 
Vocabulary will be a very important part of this lesson as students will be using this language to describe 
their findings. 
 Materials: 

Student Materials: 
- Whiteboard Markers 
- Felt Erasers 
- Subtraction Bowling Sheets 
- Sheet Protectors 
- Bowling Pins and Ball 
 
Teacher Preparation: 
- Have Fluency to 5 questions on hand 
- Have large paper with circles to mark where the pins will need to stand 
- Print Subtraction Bowling sheets and place them in sheet protectors 
- Have a container ready with 21 sets of 5 linking cubes 

Objectives or Learner Outcomes 

General Goals: 

- Give students a deeper understanding of subtraction through manipulative play and real life 
scenarios. 
- Get students to understand subtraction vocabulary as a concrete in order to understand an 
equation. 
- Allow students to practice using their voice to talk about math and speak in number sentences. 

Specific Performance-Based Objectives: 

- The student will be able to represent subtraction through acting out situations with objects. 
- The student will be able to relate subtraction to real life scenarios. 
- The student will be able to solve word problems by using objects. 
 
Anticipatory Set 
An "attention getter" to focus students’ learning?   

T: “By a show of hands, how many of you have ever been bowling?” 
S: Students will raise hands accordingly. 
T: “What if I told you that bowling is actually the same thing as subtraction? Just like when we used Fruit 
Loops last week to show subtraction, when the ball knocks down pins, we are losing some and have to find 
out how many are left. Who wants to go bowling today to learn subtraction?” 
 
Step By Step Procedures 
Explicit Instruction: 

Step One - Introduce Purpose 

a. T: “We are going to continue to learn about subtraction. Subtraction is when we take something 
away and need to see how many are left. Repeat after me, subtraction.”  
S: “Subtraction” 
b. Teacher will hold up 2 fingers on one hand, and 3 on the other.   
T: “How many fingers do you see?” 
S: “5” 
T: “Now if I take these 2 away, how many do you see?” 
S: “3” 
T: “Good! You just did subtraction! What did you do?” 
S: “Subtraction!” 
Step Two: Math Fluency to 5 
a. T: “Okay friends we are going to answer some questions quickly, using only our brains.” 
b. Teacher will ask questions at random from stack of fluency to 5 questions. Students will participate 
by answering these questions to the best of their ability. 
Step Three: Subtraction Bowling 
a. T: “Wow! We are such good mathematicians! Do you think we can do subtraction with even bigger 
numbers?” 
S: “Yes” 
T: “Oh good, because I have a really fun subtraction problem for you to figure out” 
b. T: “We are going to use bowling to teach us subtraction to the number 10. Now when we go   
bowling, there are rules we have to follow right?” 
S: “Yes” 
T: “It is very important that we follow these rules so that we can stay safe.” 
The teacher will go through a variety of rules such as: not throwing, not fighting over, not  
getting out of your seat when it’s not your turn, and not doing anything that wouldn’t make  
your dear teacher happy.  
b. Once the rules have been clearly defined, the teacher will lay out the paper with circles   
where bowling pins are to be lined up and explain that there will be one person in charge of  
restacking the pins, and another who will be bowling the ball. Everyone will get a turn at  
both jobs.   
c. Pass out the Subtraction Bowling sheets, whiteboard markers, and felt erasers to each student and 
explain how they will be used during the exercise.  
d. Have students begin by counting the number of pins that we start with and show them that this is 
the same number of pins as the ones on their sheet. Give them the example that if two of them are 
knocked down, they will want to cross two of them out on their picture to find out how many are 
left. 
e. Beginning on the left, work your way through each student giving them the chance to bowl and to 
clean up pins. 
f. After each student bowls, the remaining students sitting on the carpet will have to collaboratively do 
the math to find out how many were knocked down and therefore how many are left. Once 
students have had time to write an answer on their sheet, the teacher will ask students to speak 
their math sentence out loud. The teacher will then ask what we did, to which they will reply 
“subtraction”. 

Guided Practice: 

The first 7 rounds of bowling, the teacher will be guiding the instruction. Slowly, the teacher will be less and 
less involved to prepare students for individual practice.   
 
The students will be speaking out loud and helping each other to discover the correct number sentence to 
describe what happened on their turn. Students will work collaboratively to make sure they are gaining the 
most understanding from the exercise. 

Lesson Extension: 

Those students who demonstrate a strong understanding of subtraction will be placed near students who 
tend to struggle. These students will be called “Professors” and the other students will have an opportunity 
to ask the Professor for help when they need assistance. 

Adaptations: 

There are 4 English Learners in this class, each of which has a different set of needs. I will make sure these 
students are placed near Professors as well as near someone who speaks bilingually in order to help them in 
their native language when they are not understanding.   
 
There are no students with physical or cognitive development disabilities in this classroom and there each 
student should benefit from the same activity and exposure to subtraction. Those who need extra help will 
be able to ask one of their nearby Professors. 

Connections: 
This lesson, in addition to mathematics, will hit speaking and listening standards including: 
K.SL.1 - Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners ​about kindergarten topics and texts 
with peers and adults in small and larger groups.  
K.SL.6 - Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.  
 
Independent Practice 
What will you do to have students practice the learning independently? 

After the students have bowled 7 times as a whole class, with teacher instruction, they will have the 
opportunity to work independently. The teacher will remain nearby to ensure safety and that students stay 
on task, but the remaining time spent bowling will be student lead and orchestrated.   
 
At this time, the teacher will have an assessment chart (see below) to check how well students are 
understanding the topic. There will be 10 columns next to each student’s name, for the amount of times the 
students will perform the task without teacher instruction, and they will receive a ✓ next to their name to 
indicate understanding. There will be a “total” where the teacher can give each student a percentage of 
understanding in order to gauge future instruction. 
 
Student  1st  2nd  3rd  4th  5th  6th  7th  8th  9th  10th  Total 
Name  Attempt  Attempt  Attempt  Attempt  Attempt  Attempt  Attempt  Attempt  Attempt  Attempt 

 
 
Closure 
Reflect on Anticipatory Set: 

T: “What did we learn today?” 

S: “Subtraction” 
T: “Do we see how subtraction exists in everything we do? Any time we take something away or separate 
things, we are subtracting. When you go home today and your parents ask you what you learned, are you 
going to say how to go bowling?” 
S: “No: 
T: “What did you learn today?” 
S: “Subtraction” 
T: “And what are we?” 
S: “Mathematicians!”  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Subtraction Bowling Assessment 
 
Student  1st  2nd  3rd  4th  5th  6th  7th  8th  9th  10th  Total 
Name  Attempt  Attempt  Attempt  Attempt  Attempt  Attempt  Attempt  Attempt  Attempt  Attempt  /10 

Oscar                       

Jaylene                       

Jontae                       

Jeremiah                       

Dylan                       

Aidian                       

Jorge                       

Zariah                       

Lorelei                       

Makenzie                       

Izaac L                       

Aaliha                       

Donovan                       

Anthony                       

James                       

Itzel                       

Israel                       

Isaac S                       

Savannah                       

Aireonna                       

Joey