Our lives in kindergarten land are immersed in the idea of making 5’s and 10’s. Here is an activity you can do (After playing Make a 10…See previous blog!) to build relational thinking to 10.

Materials: Deck of Card, 3 post-its

Objective: To determine whether two addends (cards) make a sum (total) that is less than, more than, or the same as 10.

1. Have your student write less than 10 on the first post-it, the same as 10, or just 10 on the second post-it, and more than 10 on the third post-it. (Note: You can also include the symbols <, =, >, but I prefer to work on the concept FIRST then introduce the symbolic notation later.) Place the post-its on a workspace that has lots of room.
2. Shuffle the cards. Place deck face-down. I typically hold the deck and place two cards face-up for the child, but if students are playing in small groups they take turns taking the top two cards and placing them face-up. The child decides whether the sum is less than 10, the same as 10, or more than 10. If in small group, the others confirm or debate. Once the value is established, the student puts the cars face up as a pair under the correct post-it.
3. Continue until all cards are used (That is A LOT of addition they are doing!).

Note: I totally stack my deck. I want to make sure some of the first pairs have a variety of sums so that the child (or children) see cards under each post-it. Here are a few of my favorite sets of cards to ‘stack’…

• 1+2 (I like to start with a known fact and something a lot smaller than 10.)
• 1+9 (Again, building on the “one more” facts, but this time it is 10.)
• 3+9 (Relational to 1+9. If 1+9 is 10, then adding more makes more than 10. HUGE!!!!)
• 10+4 (Any 10+ is great, as students really need to build to 10+ for first and second grade. It is amazing how many children do not see this as immediately more than 10, so it is a great one to have a conversation about!)
• 2+3 (We have done so many that are greater than 10, nice to go back to a set less than 10.)
• 5+5 (One of the first known facts for making 10.)
• 5+8 (Similar to 1+9 above. If 5+5 makes 10, then adding more makes more than 10.)
• 5+2 (Conversely, if 5+5 makes 10, then adding less makes less than 10.)

Alternative Games for Older Students

• Use larger value cards and work less than, equal to, or greater than 20, 50, 100, etc.
• Use cards with decimal values and play less than, equal to, or greater than 1.00.
• Use cards with fraction values and play less than, equal to, or greater than 1.
• Use black and red cards (reds are negative, blacks are positive) and play less than, equal to, or greater than 0.