Addition surprise

With my dd, I've had her study addition and subtraction lately, and fact families, practicing the connection between addition and subtraction.

But she's young. So I know games go over well.

To illustrate the fact families better, I made math "rods" out of cardboard - you know, all different lengths. She really liked them.

But I got quite a surprise at her reaction to my made-on-the-spot Addition Surprise game...

I took three of those rods, so that two of them sum up to the third, and used the two to cover the third. I held them up and said there was a "surprise number" behind.

She saw the numbers on the two rods, added them, and told me the answer. I just said something like, "Ta da ta daa!!!" and uncovered the one on the bottom for her to grab.

She just giggled and giggled, and absolutely loved it.

Such a little thing to us adults - such an impact on a little one.

Amazon actually sells cuisenaire rods, too, so here's a pic if you don't know what they are. Just rods of different lengths. My cardboard ones had numbers printed on them, too.