Teen Number Games with Cards, Dice, and Dominoes

Look for this idea outside of your lessons. Soldiers, musicians, and athletes all drill through repetition. Games are simply drills that make you laugh. This is worth learning because repeated practice is what turns thinking into knowing. Watch for it today, and when you spot it, tell someone what you noticed and how you knew. Ask yourself where else the same idea might be hiding, then go and look.

Let us think about this slowly. Play builds speed. Roll two dice and add them, and when your total passes ten, name the teen number. Flip a card and build that teen number with rods and cubes.

Turn over a domino and read both sides as one amount. Games make your brain practice the same facts many times without feeling like work, and speed built through play tends to stay with you.

Try keeping score with tally marks while you play. That way you practice teen numbers and tallies at the same time, and the game gives you a reason to care about the count being right. Show your work to someone and explain it in your own words.