Mystery Change
Math Concepts
Add / Subtract and quantities for 1 to 10.
Materials
Bowl of small objects
Players
1
Set up
Have a bowl of 15 to 20 small items to select from.
Play
Have your student count some small number of objects. While they look away, change the number of objects. When they look back, ask what change you made. They can test their theory by reenacting what they think happened.
Example move
The student hands you five objects. Out of their sight, you put in two more objects to make a total of seven objects. When they look again and claim that you added two objects, you can check it together by grabbing five objects from the bowl and seeing what happens when two objects are added to the five- are the two quantities the same?
Discussion and Tips
This activity is meant to reinforce a sense of quantities and the effects of doing small additions and subtractions. Keep the activity grounded by using objects during all the steps.
Variations
Once this becomes easy, you can have them be more creative with their answers. For example, if 4 became 6, the answer might be that you added 3 and then took 1 away, or perhaps that you doubled the 4 and then took 2 away.