Tips to Help Kindergarteners Practice Addition and Subtraction Skills

The following tips are creative ways to seamlessly integrate addition and subtraction facts while playing board games that use dice.  (To see the video version of these tips, visit Kidnexions)
Tip #1: Opposites attract. Did you know that the opposite sides of a rolling a die great for practicing the combinations that make ‘7’. The next time you play a board game that uses a die, show your child how the opposite sides add up to seven. Then, when you take turns rolling the die, move the number of spaces that are on the opposite side would be a ‘1’ because 6 + 1 = 7. So she would move one space.
Variation:
• Create different number facts by covering the dots on the die with stickers (address labels cut to  the size
of each face on the die work well). Write the new dots according to the number facts you want to
practice. For example, if you want to work on the facts for ‘5’, then the opposite sides need to add up to
5: 0 dots and 5 dots; 4 dots and 1 dot; 2 dots and 3 dots.
Tip #2: What’s one more? Roll the die. The number of spaces moved is one more than the number rolled.
For example, if a ‘5’ is rolled, then the number of spaces moved is one more, or six.
Variations:
• The number of spaces moved is two more … or one less … or
• Can also be done when rolling two dice.
Tip #3: What’s the diff? Using two dice, players take the difference between the two numbers and move that many spaces. For example, if a ‘6’ and a ‘2’ were rolled, then the number of spaces moved is four because the difference between 6 and 2 is 4.
Playing at a higher level: To help kids begin to abstract the dots on a die, cover the dots with stickers and write in the number symbols that you want to use. For example, a regular die would be covered with
symbols: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
Fun fact: The dots on a die are called ‘pips’.
To keep posted on any new hands-on lessons and videos, and to see how you and your child,or
classroom students, can make a quick, super fun game to practice these tips, simply sign up for our
Elementary Math – Tips and Lessons emails: http://bit.ly/u4B41A
©Kidnexions 2011

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