About this game

Picture addition up to 4

Picture addition up to 4: 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

How many is 2 + 1 when the numbers come with birthday cakes beside them? Picture addition up to 4 lets a Grade 1 child answer with eyes and fingers before the symbols take over. A round has eight questions. Each one shows two boxes of real things, such as carrots, soda bottles or little pink cars, with the addition written underneath. Your child reads the sum, counts, and types the total, and every answer is checked and explained.

This is addition as putting two groups together, the meaning that later supports counting on and number facts. The pictures keep each number tied to a real amount, so 1 + 3 is never just marks on a screen. A gray, empty box means zero.

Expect one common slip: your child counts the first box, types that number, and forgets the second. Point to the right box and ask, "Did we count these ones too?" If a total looks too big, try "Count it again, slowly." At the end, name the work: "You put both groups together every time."

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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