Adding 1, 2 or 3

Jul 25, 2023

To help students achieve fluency with addition you can give them lots of practice adding 1, 2 or 3. To begin with you may see them counting to find the total.

Here is math warm up to give your small group another opportunity to add 1, 2 or 3 to numbers 1-6.

You'll need:

standard 6 sided dice (use a numeral dice if you'd like to make it more challenging )
1-3 dice (we're using the 1-2-3 Happy Dice (from Premium Pond Coloring Club)
ten frames (we're using the dinosaur ten frames from our Math Kit)

students roll both dice and combine these numbers on the ten frame
observe your students and notice when they do not need the frame for counting the total - perhaps extend these students by using larger dice and 2 dinosaurs (add within 20)

An option is to have students record their work on a whiteboard or in their math journal.

Further your math warm up by talking with your students about the numbers they are working with. You could:

ask them to tell you how many more to make 10 - and have them count-on to demonstrate
provide them another dinosaur and ask them to make the number in an alternative arrangement
challenge them to demonstrate how their addition can be inversely linked with a subtraction by taking one of the addends away - e.g. in the photo below they would model 6-5=1 or 6-1=5