Number Bonds

We've been working on Number Bonds this year and I wanted to show families an example of what this looks like.  Kids will use Number Bonds all the way through school as a way of seeing that numbers go together.  This is an example we've been using with number bonds, when working with our teen numbers.  We put the sum of our number bond in the top square or the biggest square, and then show the parts of that number.

Obviously, there are many more ways to make 15.  If kids put 8 and 7 in the bottom boxes, they would be correct, but our purpose today was to use the teen numbers.  We want to show that 10 and another number makes our teen number.  

I love using number bonds as a visual for kids who are beginning to understand the relationship between numbers. I also love the idea of telling a story about these numbers.  Here's an example:

"This is a math mountain. It's called the 15 Math Mountain.  There were 15 tiny rocks sitting at the top of 15 Math Mountain.  We'll call these rocks tiny tumblers.  One day the mountain started to rumble and the rocks started to fall.  10 tiny tumblers rolled down one side of the math mountain.  All of the rest rolled down the other side. How many rolled down the other side?"

Sometimes I will have kids draw the tiny tumblers on the side of the mountain as a visual.  (Drawing tiny tumblers is also great to develop fine motor skills!)

Here's a tip to file away, especially as kids get older.  Amazon sells triangular flash cards that use this same idea of number bonds.  This is what they look like.  This is an example of the addition and subtraction flash card.  You would simply cover one corner (any corner you want) and ask your child what the number is that is missing.  For most kindergarten students, this is more than they are ready for right now.  It's a great product and something you might be interested in purchasing as they get older.  They also sell these in multiplication and division.  Here's the link to the product on Amazon.  

You will notice number bonds on the homework this week.  Hope this little blog post helps with that!