The Lion’s Share Math, Craft, and Printable Activities

I am not sure how it happened but here we are in November and only a few days away until another one of our favorite holidays. Although Thanksgiving will likely look different this year due to rising COVID cases around us, we have still been getting into the spirit lately with learning activities focused on family, being thankful, and sharing. Today, I am so excited to share with you some recent learning activities and crafts that I made for my kids inspired by another one of our favorite books, The Lion’s Share, written and illustrated by the talented Matthew McElligott.

The Lion’s Share is a delightful story about a lion king who invites nine animals to share a special dinner with him. This was prepandemic so nine was okay. My kids absolutely love this funny tale of the animals with their odd table manners and the fun way in which math concepts such as fractions, multiplication, and division are introduced. The animals divided each piece of the cake that they shared for dessert in half, but when it came to the poor ant, there was nothing left to split with the king. All the animals then promised to bake a special cake for the king, each one trying to top the other. My kids adored the wonderful illustrations of the animals’ hilarious facial expressions, dressed in their bowties, necklaces, and fancy hats. I also appreciated the opportunity that the story provided to revisit the topic of proper table manners, sharing, and of course, making learning math fun.

I created some themed fraction worksheets, a lion fraction craft, fraction clip cards, a playdough mat, as well as a few more fun learning printables. The author, Matthew McElligott, has graciously allowed me to share these activities I made, using his characters, with you. The fraction clipart is from Sculpt Designs. These are all available for free to download below.

The kids were instructed to color the designated fraction of Warthog’s mudpies and Macaw’s carrot cakes. My second grader completed this in seconds while my kindergartener needed some more direction and time. She ended up grasping the concept and completed the remaining seventy-five percent of the activity by herself. Later in the day, I found her drawing her alphabet letters in block form and then dividing each block into fractions. Even my toddler, age 3, was able to complete this. It is never too early to introduce concepts like fractions. Your kids will amaze you by what they are actually capable of understanding.

The Lion Fraction Craft is best printed out onto cardstock, given to your child to color as instructed, then cut and pasted to form King Lion. For a fuller mane, two copies of the second page should be printed. This is a great activity to visually demonstrate to kids how many fifths, quarters, and halves it takes to make a whole. My toddler enjoyed the coloring and scissor practice while my kindergartener and second grader enjoyed the puzzle aspect of this activity. They asked for additional sheets without coloring instructions and continued to make their own unique creations using the fraction pieces in very imaginative ways. Older kids can also be challenged to determine the sum of all the fractions used in their creations.

The Fraction Clip Cards are best printed out back to back, laminated for durability and repeat use, and then cut into four. In the story, the warthog (my kids’ favorite character) ends up trying to eat the flowers which were set on the table as decoration and sits on her cake thus each clip card has pictures of both dessert and flowers. The kids were instructed to clip the fraction of what was edible. If you don’t have clothespins lying around to clip, your kids can use dry erase markers to circle the correct number, or place small counters on the correct number. We decided to use animal crackers for more themed fun.

The playdough mat file is best printed out and laminated and is just plain fun for open-ended play. Help your child create a beautifully decorated cake for the king. For younger kids, you can make a certain number of sprinkles or swirls and count how many you add on together. You can also practice spelling out a special message on the cake or banner. I like to sometimes add a tray with beads and cut pipe clean cleaners that the kids can use to add to their creations.

Help frog skip count by twos on lily pads. This file is best printed out and either laminated or placed in a laminated pouch for repeat use with a dry erase marker. Your child then fills in all the blank numbers, learning how to skip count by two. I had to explain to the kids how this was different than doubling as the animals kept doubling their promised number of cakes in the end. Skip counting is a great way for kids to learn how to do mental math more quickly. You can also put down green construction paper squares or draw green squares with sidewalk chalk, and have your child physically hop along them while skip counting to reinforce this lesson further.

This was a fun activity to get the kids to brainstorm how many compound words they knew. I just printed the page out and hung it up on our refrigerator for the kids to see and add as many compound words as they could think of throughout the day. This was a great spelling activity for my second grader and also provided great reading practice for my kindergartener.

If your child enjoyed these activities, they may also be interested in:

I create more fun educational printable activities for kids here with the goal of helping to grow kids who love to learn.

For more about Matthew McElligott, be sure to check out his site at www.matthewmcelligott.com and follow him on Facebook and Instagram. I follow him on Instagram. He has recently launched a new book Do Not Eat The Game! and is sending out custom monster bookplates to anyone who purchases his book. How cool is that?! I for one, am definitely going to get a copy for my kids.

I hope you enjoy these learning activities inspired by The Lion’s Share. Special thanks to Matthew McElligott for creating such a wonderful book and for allowing me to run with his characters in creating some learning fun to share.