Building number sense with math games

It's easy to partner up and play the Hand Game. We were working on all the ways to make six, essentially all seven ways to divide six into two groups. 

0+6

1+5

2+4

3+3

4+2

5+1

6+0

To play the Hand Game, partner up and take six little cubes. One person discretely divides the cubes between their two hands. The other partner chooses one of the hands to reveal how many cubes are hiding inside. 

Once the cubes are revealed the person says how many cubes are hiding in the closed fist to make six. 

If there is one cube in this hand, there are five hiding in the other. 

One and five is six! Then the partners switch roles. 

We also played 'shake and spill' with double sided counters. Students recorded their results by colouring counters and writing number sentences to math. Then they graphed their results. 

Later during the week, we were working on number seven. Here are some different ways students were exploring seven at the math table with a variety of materials. 

These are the seven trains we made with unifix cubes.