Addition Snake Game

Materials:

• Red felt underlay the size of the table 

• Tray

• Box with gold bars of 10

• Box with colored bead bars

• Box with 1 black and white bead stair

• Notched marker

Purposes:

• To experience different ways to make 10.

• To let the child experience the fact that no two quantities less than 10 can make more than 18.

• To give the first practice in memorization of the essential addition combinations.

Age: 4 ½ and up 

Preparation:

• The child has done all the numbers 1-10 work

• The child has done addition with the Decimal System

• The child must have good manual dexterity.

Presentation 1: Finding Tens

• Invite the child to the lesson, to bring and open the underlay as the guide brings the materials

• Open the gold box and then the red and introduce their contents

• Open the white box and pour out the beads onto the mat. 

• In front of the white box, build the stair starting with one, counting aloud.  The black two will be placed above the one.  Continue counting aloud to 9, the white beads will be on the right side of the bar.  

• Break it apart and have the child build it.

• Explain you will make a long snake with the bead bars on the mat.

• Take two of each color and 4 fives.  Build the snake so the first few combinations equal 10.  The rest are placed at random. Close the red box.

• Explain you will turn the snake into a golden snake. 

• Starting at the left, count aloud to 10 with the counter touching each bead. Place the counter after the 10, explain that you will exchange for a ten.

• Place the ten above the counted 10 beads, remove the counted color beads, and place them in the empty remainder bead box.

• Soon you will count to 10 and there will be leftover beads on the right side of the counter.  Exchange for the ten leaving the colored beads on the mat. Show the child the leftover beads. Count them, take the black remainder bead that matches and place it above the leftover beads. Remove the counted colored beads and place them in the remainder bead box.  Start counting at the first black bead after the gold ten.

• Continue in this manner.  The black beads return to the stair when the exchange for a ten is made, colored beads to the remainder bead box.

• At about halfway through the snake, turn over the exchanging to the child, then the counting.

• At completion, gather up the tens, count them (10, 20, 30…) and then place them in the tens box.

• Pour out the counted colored beads and invite the child to rebuild the snake however they like and turn it into a golden snake.

Note:  From here on, the child will decide which beads they use. If there are remainder beads at the end, show the child to exchange the reminder bead for a colored bead of matching quantity.

Presentation 2: First Verification Process: 1-to-1 Correspondence

Note: The child needs lots of practice with the first presentation before introducing the verification

• Invite the child for this presentation after they have converted their snake to a golden snake.

• Tell the child you can show them how to check their counting.

• Gather the tens and the remainder and lay them vertically at the left side of the mat.

• On the right side of the mat, sort out the colored beads nine to one (grouping like beads together) in descending order from left to right

• Move a ten in front of the child.

• Place a nine to the right of it lined up at the bottom or the top.  Ask the child how many more are needed to make 10.

• Let the child move a one bead from the right side of the table.

• Place another ten to the right of the pair just finished and continue building tens matching the colored beads to the golden beads.

• Pull over the remainder and see if what is left on the right matches.  If the child is off, still celebrate their counting.

• Invite the child to repeat.

Presentation 3: Counting Two by Two

• Invite the child to set up the remainder stair and to build a long snake (however they like)

• Close the colored bead box

• Explain that you will show them a new way to count the snake, two bead bars at a time

• Pull down the first two bars to the bottom of the mat

• Count then to 10, place the counter, make the exchange, place the counted colored beads in the remainder bead box, and place the gold ten in the snake where the beads were.

• Move the leftover remainder to the left and pull down the next bead bar following the gold that was just placed.

• Repeat.

• If the beads do not add up to 10, exchange them for a remainder bead that matches their value and then pull the next bead bar down from the snake. If the beads add up to an even 10, make the exchange, place the 10 in the snake and pull down the next two bead bars.

• At some point invite the child to “count on” starting from the first bead bar they recognize.  Example: For the 4 bar followed by a 3 bar, “You know what that is, instead of counting each bead, you can count like this, four-five-six-seven.”

• Once the snake is gold, invite the child to check using the first verification process.

Presentation 4:  Second Verification Process: Pathway to Multiplication

• The child will have completely counted the snake and you will come to present a new way for them to verify their work

• Set up the verification process as before.  Tens on the left and colored beads on the right 

• Separate out the 9 bars and line them up horizontally in front of the child near the top of the mat.  Have the child count each of the beads of the 9 bars to find out how many are in the group.

• Make that number vertically below the 9’s with the quantity on the left side of the mat.  If needed, move a ten to the center of the mat and make an even exchange for the bead that you need (if you need a 7, remove a 7 bar from the colored bead box and a three-bar). Close the colored bead box and place the ten in the ten box and the exchanged beads with the rest of the tens on the left.

• Take the bead needed to complete the total of the 9’s and place to the right of the tens that have been placed.

• Move the 8’s horizontally to the right of the nines.  And repeat in this manner. 

• Repeat the process for the rest of the bars.

Control of Error: The verification processes

Pedagogical Notes:

• We want the child to engage in the process. If they make an error, it is fine. Do not place emphasis on the correct answer.

• Your success in this presentation is in how you manage the beads:  

  • It is confusing for the child if you are shifting beads and/or adding unnecessary movements. 

  • Physically touch each bead as you count with your finger or with the counter.  Do not hover your finger above the beads.

• Repetition is how we memorize.  Look at the variations in this exercise to keep the work enticing-new ways of counting and new ways to verify. 

• The point of this exercise is finding what makes 10 and then identifying whatever is left.

• The black beads are colored that way to set them apart.  Any bead up to 5 is black to make it easier to recognize.  After 5 is white.  The child can also internalize that 5+1=6, 5+2=7, 5+3=8, 5+3=9

• There is a new color-coding scheme starting here: Red=Addition, Green=Subtraction, Yellow=Multiplication, and Blue=Division