Number bonds are the first step to teaching children number sentences and choosing a number bonds game to introduce them is a great way to support learning. Using number bonds in math is sometimes overlooked but they are fun and can teach a lot!
Using number bonds is a great tool for students to truly grasp the knowledge between the relationships of numbers as well as decomposing numbers. It is the first step to learning addition and subtraction! This post is all about a fun Number Bonds Game that I created. It is complete with free printable worksheet just for you!
Children will learn much better when the concepts presented to them are manipulative and concrete. This means you use items they can move and touch. When they are able to pick up the “units” and move them how they please they are gaining way more knowledge of the concept than just by staring at numbers on a piece of paper.
Number Bonds Game
Items Needed To Play:
1. Click here for the Number Bonds Game worksheet 2. Find some abstract items you can use as units. We used pom-poms that I ordered from Amazon. 3. . (optional) Laminate this PDF so you can reuse it 4. Dry erase marker or pencil if not laminated 5. DICE (You can use a standard dice or a fun big one, totally your choice!)
How To Play:
1. Roll the dice. 2. Put the number side up that was rolled in the larger top circle. 3. Pick out the same number of units (whichever you choose to use) and lay them out for child. 4. Let the child come up with all the different number combinations they can think of. Their number bonds. We wrote down tally marks for each one as a conversation topic at the end. (3’s have only 1 number bond.)
How To Play:
5. NEXT, take them all away in your hand and set however many you want in one small circle and let the child guess how many are left in your hands. (i.e Number at the top was rolled as a 5, put 3 units/pom poms in one circle, let child guess that you must have 2 units/pom poms in your hand) (example on next page)