Learning Addition: Activities for Learning How to Add

How Can I Help My Child Learn to Add?

In first grade, your child will learn how to add. At this grade level, your child will primarily use modeling and drawing to visualize the process of adding two numbers.

In the first grade math curriculum, your child will learn to add numbers within 100, including adding a 2-digit number and a 1-digit number. Your child will also be taught how to add a 2-digit number and a multiple of ten together. It is important for your first grader to make the connection between a visual representation of an addition number sentence and the written form of the sentence.

Domino Addition

For this activity, lay out a set of dominoes on the table with the number side facing up. Ask your child to choose one of the dominoes and create a number sentence using the dots. For example, if your child chooses a domino that has four dots on one end and two dots on the other end, he or she would say, '4 + 2 = 6.'

Challenge your child to locate another domino that would have an identical sum. For instance, he or she could choose one that had six dots on one end and no dots on the other end. To represent this domino, your child would say, '6 + 0 = 6.' Depending on your child's level of understanding, you may also have him or her write the addition number sentence.

Addition Booklet

All you will need for this activity is several sheets of computer paper and markers. Stack the sheets of paper together and fold them in half, making a booklet. Feel free to personalize your child's booklet by writing a title on the cover, along with the name of the author and illustrator.

On each page, write an addition fact and have your child draw pictures to model each of the addition facts. For instance, if one page has the fact 2 + 2 = 4, your child could draw two balloons + two balloons = four balloons.

Add Those Cards!

Before beginning this game, remove all face cards from a deck of cards and deal each player ten. Players will take turns choosing two cards from their hand, laying them down on the table and saying the sum of the two cards. For instance, if a player chooses a five card and a four card, then he or she would say, '5 + 4 = 9.' The opponent will then try to lay down two cards from his or her hand that will have a larger sum.

At the end of the round, the player whose two cards had the highest sum will take all cards played. The game will continue until all cards from the players' hands have been used. At the end of the game, the player with the most cards wins!