Adding Dice

This is one of my ideas of how to teach addition.  One of the problems that I face is that as soon as home school tasks get laborious, I lose my power.  There are no threats that will make a 6 year old do more addition practice when she doesn't want to.  I tried to use my very favorite threat in this situation, but with no results.  (My favorite threat: "If you don't want to clean your room, I'll do it for you.  But remember, I clean with a garbage bag.")  They don't care if you throw their addition papers in the trash.  In fact, they would prefer it.

To counteract this powerlessness, I have come up with lots of ways to practice addition.  Because lets face it, they need to drill addition.  There's no way around that.  So, we put the worksheet in a sheet protector, and they do addition with dry erase markers.  We add on the chalkboard.  We add using number magnets on our magnet board.  Or, me favorite, we add using m&ms (we had to stop that one when the teacher ate all the teaching tools in a bout of frustration).  This is another way to add, and my girls love this one.  This also means that we are just a few months away from playing Yahtzee for math time, and I can't wait!!  I rock at Yahtzee.

I give each girl 2 dice (we'll move to three later) they toss the dice, and write down the addition problem that results.  They write the complete problem and the answer, and toss the dice again.  They end up doing between 10 and 15 problems, and I am satisfied.  It is great for beginning adders, with sums up to 12.  It's great too because the little ones toss the dice and scribble on their papers "adding" just like their sisters, and I can nurse the baby in peace. 

Try it.  I know you'll like it.