Flexible Fingers

This activity is designed to give students a visual and kinaesthetic model of numbers up to 10 that can be partitioned into 5 and a remainder. For example, 8 is 5 and 3. When the students make numbers on their hands in pairs and face each other, they can put together their two fives to make 10 and then add the remaining parts of their two numbers. Make sure that they are sitting knee to knee and making the five part of their numbers so that their two fives are directly opposite. This makes it easier to join the two fives to make 10: they simply touch hands.

The quinary Tens Frames can be used to help make the connection, with the fives down one side. This also makes it easy for the students to see the two fives that make the 10.
You may like to work through Helping Hands on page 3 of Number: Book One, Figure It Out, level 2, with the students before doing this page.
Spend time modelling examples with the students and recording each stage of the addition so that they make the link between the practical activity and the written recording.
9 + 6: 9 = 5 + 4 and 6 = 5 + 1
: (5 + 5 ) + ( 4 + 1)
: 10 + 5
: 15

Game

Ensure that you play this game with the students to really reinforce the five-based strategy. It would be easy for the students to revert to counting on as the strategy to add the two numbers. One way of encouraging them to use the five-based strategy is to get them to record their addition in a table, showing the partitioning.

Answers to Activity

1. They put the two fives together to make 10 and then add the other fingers.
2. a. 14: (5 + 5) + 4
b. 15: (5 + 5) + (3 + 2)
c. 16: (5 + 5) + (2 + 4)
d. 14: (5 + 5) + (3 + 1)
e. 13: (5 + 5) + (1 + 2)
f. 17: (5 + 5) + (4 + 3)
A game using addition