Games for Educators

Use compensation for sums between 11 and 18 to make them easier.
Giving away fingers: Suppose you’re adding 7 + 8. One person puts up 7 fingers and the other person puts up 8
fingers. Then, one person gives away as many fingers as are needed to put up 10 fingers on the other person’s
hands. In this example, 7 + 8 could turn into 5 + 10 (giving away 2) or 10 + 5 (giving away 3).
Magic: Be dramatic and give away the fingers by having one person’s hand bang into the other person’s hand
and having the fingers transfer “magically.”

Counting on: Use the idea of ‘counting on’ to make addition easier. Counting on refers to
doing addition by starting at one of the numbers, rather than starting at 0 and counting out
both of the numbers.
Let’s add 8 + 3 as an example. It is easier if you pick the larger number being added to start
the ‘counting on.’
Have your child make a closed fist and say ‘8.’ Then, lift one more finger each time as your
child counts out loud ‘9, 10, 11.’ When 3 fingers are raised, you are done adding 3, and the
counting stops. At that point, you have that 8 plus 3, which is 11.
With practice and further number relationship ideas, these math facts will become automatic
for your child. However, there is no hurry for memorization, and it can wait until more
experience with the quantities and relationships between the numbers has been gained.