Numbeanie fact families

Summary

A cooperative game to practise making related addition and subtraction facts.

Curriculum content

• Create single-digit addition equations
• Find related addition and subtraction facts

Materials

Card sets

• 1 set of Mathletics number cards 0 to 20 0-20
• 1 set of Mathletics image cards 0 to 10 0-10
• Mathletics operation symbol cards +, – and =

Concrete

• Stopwatch (optional)

Printables

• Numbeanie fact families game sheet per pair Download game sheet - A4

How to play

Set up

1. Arrange students into pairs sitting side-by-side.
2. Shuffle the image cards and place them in a pile face down.
3. Arrange the number cards and operation cards face up in an organised way.

Rules

1. Start the stopwatch (optional).
2. Player 1 picks up the first 2 cards from the image cards pile and places them side by side.
3. Player 2 uses the number and operation cards to make an addition number sentence to represent the image cards.
4. Player 1 records the number sentence on their game sheet.
5. Players create related addition and subtraction number sentences by rearranging the cards and using the +, – and = operation cards.
6. Players then work together to record 1 related addition fact and 2 related subtraction facts.
7. Discard the used image cards. Swap roles and repeat until all image cards have been used (5 rounds).
8. Record the time taken to complete the game.
9. The teacher or a helper checks the facts are correct and marks this in the ‘check’ box.
10. Play again to improve the time or compare times with other pairs.

Variations

CHANGE it down

• Decrease image card range to 0 to 5.
• Provide materials to assist with calculations.
• Have a teacher or helper record the number sentences.

CHANGE it up

• Use a count down timer so pairs need to ‘beat the clock’.

What to look for

• Are students able to create related facts for a given fact?
• Did students use or develop strategies for finding related facts?
• Do the students use appropriate mathematical language to communicate thinking?