When I taught first grade, a part of our math curriculum was teaching kids to think in groups when solving math problems. I spent a lot of time using dice to get them to know how many were on the die without counting them. This is important for kids to grasp at a young age and will make higher math that much easier. Once they can think in groups counting by 2′s, 5′s, 10′s etc. will make more sense. Adding numbers will be easier too and they won’t rely on their fingers for counting. There are a couple of fun easy ways to practice this with them.
The first is take a die and have them roll it. Have them tell you how many dots there are without counting. Once they get the hang of it add another die. Then they can roll both and add them up. Let’s say they roll a 4 and a 3, have them start with the 4 and count up 5,6,7. Once this starts to come naturally to them it will replace them using their fingers to add. You could turn it into a game by thinking of a number to reach, say 20. You both keep rolling the dice and adding until the first person reaches 20.
Another way to get your child to start thinking in groups is a favorite of my daughters. I draw on a piece of paper dots different ways. I might draw 3 on the top row and 2 on the bottom. I give her paper and show her the dots for about 3 -5 seconds. I take it away and she has to draw what my dots looked like and tell me how many there were. Have your child explain how they came up with their total. You will be amazed how there minds work. My daughter did this problem and she told me that there were 5 because she saw 4 dots that looked like a box (2 on top and 2 on the bottom) and then there was one more so that made 5. She is learning to group them instead of counting them individually.
