Many of us teach “Fact Families” or use a triangle as a means to teach the relationships between numbers in addition and subtraction.

…Well the other day I was about to teach my lesson and on a whim started talking in this “royal” (aka: poor excuse for a British accent!) and had the kids wrapped!  Their attention and buy-in was remarkable. 

 

Needless to say it really drove the concept home!

 

I was making up stories, for example, of a castle on top of a mountain that had 10 royal children.  6 were prices and 4 were princesses.

 

 

Well, I started to embellish the stories and draw as the lesson progressed.

 

I love when a random idea becomes your best lesson of the day!

 

A teacher friend of mine suggested that we make booklets for students to work in and…

 

Click HERE to get a copy of the booklets!

 

The idea is still new. Who knows where it will go!  But in the mean time you can copy the booklets and program them as you like.  I thought that kids could:

 

~ Cut out the castles with numbers, glue them to pages and show the two addends. 

 

~Write the equation.

 

~Choose a colored castle card from a pile or bag and write the related numbers on a page.

 

~…And/or have a booklet devoted to showing the different ways to make ten.

 

Let me know how you use them!

Enjoy

~Holly