Using Fingers, Counters, and Simple Drawings to Add Sums Up to 10

Look for this idea outside of your lessons. Builders use tape measures. Cooks use measuring cups. Nobody calls them beginners for using a tool. Tools make careful work possible. This is worth learning because seeing amounts with your eyes builds the pictures your mind will use later.

Watch for it today, and when you spot it, tell someone what you noticed and how you knew. Let us think about this slowly. Tools help your thinking. To add four and three, hold up four fingers on one hand and three on the other, then count all of them: seven.

You can also draw four circles, draw three more, and count the circles. Beans, buttons, and pebbles work just as well. Tools are not cheating. Real mathematicians use tools every day. As you practice, the answers start living in your head and you need the tools less.

One caution about fingers. If you hold up four and three but then count the same hand twice, your answer will be too big. Set your hands far apart and count left to right every time. A steady habit means the tool helps you instead of tripping you. Show your work to someone and explain it in your own words.