OuiSi · Math

Number bonds

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Grades K–2 Teaching 30 min Plus 3 to set out, 3 to clear Class any size Set any Prep counters, about 15 per pair

set out 3′ Find something to count 7′ One counter each 8′ Split the pile 10′ Close 5′ clear 3′

Goal: Children find a small quantity inside a photograph, put a counter on every one, then split the pile and discover the number can be made several ways.
Materials: One OuiSi Photo-Card set, about six cards per pair. Counters — cubes, buttons, or coins.

K: Numbers under six. Stop after splitting the pile — about 25 min
Grade 1: Numbers under ten, and write the bond as a sum — the full 30 min
Grade 2: Add the take-away step, and find a second card with the same number — the full 30 min

1 · Find something to count

7 min

Pairs, about six cards face up between them.

Find a card where you can count something. Petals, windows, stripes, stones —⁠ anything.

Counting something nobody arranged for counting is real work. A photograph does not lay things out in tidy rows, so children have to decide what counts as one thing before they can count at all.

To a pair arguing about a half-hidden object.

You decide. Then count it the same way every time.

2 · One counter each

8 min

Put one counter on every single one. Do not skip any.

Then move them off the card.

Slide all your counters off the card into one pile. How many?

This is the moment the quantity leaves the picture and becomes a number on its own. Young children need it to happen physically, with their hands, before it happens in their heads.

3 · Split the pile

10 min

Push your pile into two smaller piles. Any two.

How many in this one? How many in that one? And how many altogether?

Then again, differently.

Push them back together. Now split them a different way.

Keep going until a pair finds three or four ways. The surprise is that the total never changes, and children say so out loud without being told.

Look back at the card once more.

Can you see your two piles in the picture? Four dark ones and three light ones?

4 · Close

5 min

Tell me two numbers that make your number.

Go round four or five pairs, quickly. Write each one on the board as they say it.

Watch for

Numbers too big. Over ten and this becomes a counting slog. Steer pairs toward cards with a handful of things, and swap a card rather than letting them labor.
Nothing countable. Plenty of cards are texture or landscape with nothing discrete. Say so cheerfully and swap it.
Counting the counters wrong. One counter per thing, placed on top, is the check. If the count is disputed, recount by sliding them off one at a time.
Arguing about what counts as one. Not a problem — it is the lesson. The group picks a rule and sticks to it.

Adapt

Number anxiety — stay under six. Splitting five four different ways builds more confidence than counting to twenty.
Dyscalculia — keep the counters on the card as long as possible, so the quantity stays visible rather than remembered.
Multilingual learners — numbers travel. Say the split in any language and write it as numerals.
Motor needs — larger counters, and a partner may place them on request.
Finished early — find a different card with the same number on it.
Whole-class version — one card on the board, counters on a magnetic surface, splitting done together.

Curriculum links. Counting a small quantity with one-to-one correspondence · Decomposing a number into two parts · Finding several decompositions of the same number · Matching a decomposition back to the picture.
Standard codes vary by state and district — these are the skills exercised, for you to map to your own.

For grades 3–5 see Arrays in pictures, which takes the same counting into multiplication and factors.
Screen-free. No codes and no devices. Works with any OuiSi Photo-Card set.