About this game

Add and put together

Add and put together: a free Grade 1 math game for ages 6-7. Each round draws 8 questions; instructions are read aloud and every answer is checked and explained.

How it plays and why it helps

Marbles in a bag, pencils on a table, cookies in a tin: Add and put together tells eighteen short stories about two amounts that join. Each card is read aloud, and your child taps the total from four numbers. The first cards stay at 10 or under; the last ones climb to sums such as 36 + 14 and 48 + 21. Eight cards make a round in this Grade 1 game, and every answer is checked.

Two words matter here: add and altogether. Both mean joining. The amounts become one total, which is the meaning of addition before any method. The hint suggests counting on from the bigger number, which works well up to 10; for 48 + 21, tens and ones do the job better.

Hidden among the four numbers is usually the difference, not the sum: 1 for 2 marbles and 3 more, 22 for 36 books and 14 more. A child who takes away by mistake will find it there. Ask, "Did the pile get bigger or smaller?" Praise the check: "You knew adding makes more."

Aligned with

  • 1.NBT.C.4 Add within 100, including adding a two-digit number and a one-digit number, and adding a two-digit number and a multiple of 10, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used. Understand that in adding two-digit numbers, one adds tens and tens, ones and ones; and sometimes it is necessary to compose a ten.
  • 1.OA.C.6 Add and subtract within 20, demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 10. Use strategies such as counting on; making ten (e.g., 8 + 6 = 8 + 2 + 4 = 10 + 4 = 14); decomposing a number leading to a ten (e.g., 13 - 4 = 13 - 3 - 1 = 10 - 1 = 9); using the relationship between addition and subtraction (e.g., knowing that 8 + 4 = 12, one knows 12 - 8 = 4); and creating equivalent but easier or known sums (e.g., adding 6 + 7 by creating the known equivalent 6 + 6 + 1 = 12 + 1 = 13).

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