Sums of Ten Thanksgiving Freebie

Hi, Teaching Friends!

Are you working on sums of ten with your first graders? Don't get discouraged! For some little learners, you'll need to try lots of different ways to make all those combinations of ten STICK!

I remember one little darling saying to me, "Wait- you mean we have to REMEMBER these???" Yes, sweetie, you do. Although, I really couldn't fault her, since I have a very clear memory of my own first trigonometry test, where I was in total disbelief that there wasn't some kind of reference chart, that I was actually supposed to memorize all those... things. (You can see right there how I met up with the first test that I ever failed. Hittin' the wall is no fun, people.)

So, we need to teach those combinations of ten lots of different ways, and convince our students of just how important those sums of ten are... because we have lots of different kinds of learners!

I love the idea of Rainbow Tens that's all over Pinterest, where you write the numerals from zero to 10 across the bottom of the page and make a different color arch to link each set of addend partners... zero links to ten, one links to nine, etc.  Nice visual!! That makes a great anchor chart to keep posted and referring to in your classroom.

I've also used Friends of Ten, with headbands or wristbands for each student, each with a numeral 0-10 on it. Randomly put clusters of students around the room and on the word "Ten!", students quickly move to find and hold hands with a friend that makes ten.  They love this game (most likely because they're up and moving around!), and it's another way to make the point that you need to know all of those facts, but the totals of ten are the Super Important ones!

Since we're coming up on Thanksgiving, here's a free sums of ten board game for partners with a turkey theme, Turkey Time Tens. Your students will roll a die, determine what number needs to be added to it to make ten, and cover that number on the board. What?!? That's missing addends practice, too!

The download includes both color and grayscale versions. It's a simple game, but hopefully a helpful one for you and your students! Just click here or on the picture to get your download. Enjoy!

Happy Teaching!