About this game

Put two groups together

Put two groups together: a free Pre-K math game for ages 4-5. Each round draws 5 questions; instructions are read aloud and every answer is checked and explained.

How it plays and why it helps

Tom has 5 fish. Nina has 4. How many fish are there when they put them together? Put two groups together tells short stories like this one, read aloud, with names a child can picture. Only the first group appears on screen; the second number is in the story. Your Pre-K child taps how many there are in all, from four numbers. A round has five stories, and every answer is checked: 5 and 4 make 9 fish in all.

Joining two groups and naming the whole is the first meaning of addition, long before the plus sign. The phrase in all is worth pointing out: it signals that the answer is bigger than either part. The hint keeps it concrete: count Tom's fish, then keep counting with Nina's.

Watch the moment where Tom's fish end and Nina's begin. Counting often stalls there, and 8 comes out instead of 9, a choice the game offers. Ask, "Did Nina's first fish get a number?" Then praise the handover: "You went straight from Tom's to Nina's."

Aligned with

  • P-MATH 6 Child understands addition as adding to and understands subtraction as taking away from.

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