Playdates

Playdate focus

Use Fact Families to emphasize the connection between addition and subtraction. This is a natural follow on to the last Playdate’s focus on number bonds.

Storybook properties

This has counting to 12, colors, shapes, and patterns.

Activities properties

These involve lots of practice with number bonds and with addition and subtraction of small numbers.

A family of facts

Addition and subtraction facts are easily grouped into facts that are closely related. Take this family of facts for example: 2 +3 = 5, 3 + 2 = 5, 5 – 3 = 2, and 5 – 2 = 3. The picture below shows how these are interconnected.

Use this kind of picture with your child. It shows one group of 3 dots, another group of 2 dots, and all together there are 5 dots. You can add the groups of dots in either order – either as 3 + 2 or 2 + 3 – and get the same result. If you take the 5 dots and you cover over one group, say the group of 2, then it is clear why 5 – 2 = 3.

Adding and subtracting are related

Fact families and their associated pictures make it very clear how closely tied together addition and subtraction are. One important part of their relationship is that they undo each other. If you start with 3 and add 2, and then subtract 2, you are back with having the original 3. Similarly, if you start with 5 and subtract 2, and then add 2, you are back to having the original 5.

Addition order doesn’t matter

Another important thing to reinforce about fact families is that they show that the order that addition is done in does not change the result. So, if your child is asked to do 4 + 8 and they prefer to do 8 + 4, then they can do that.