Addition with Accessories — Kindergarten

Mixed practice lays adding and part-finding next to each other. On an adding row the child counts hats, belts and a scarf and a number to reach the total; on a part-finding row the total and one part are given and the child supplies the rest to make it whole. For a kindergartner, doing both with the same pictured accessories is how the link between joining groups and breaking a number into parts first takes hold — and small totals keep every answer checkable by counting.

Seeing that a handful of accessories can be split into a few here and a few there — and that those parts rebuild the whole — is the number-bond idea at the centre of kindergarten arithmetic. The adding rows and the find-the-part rows practise the two directions of that bond, and keeping the amounts inside ten means a child can rebuild or take apart any total by counting.

Children who like accessories enjoy the change of pace from row to row, and it works well for a small group ready to think in more than one direction. When the numbers feel easy, count a fresh group in addition with animals, or try addition with birds. You can also browse every addition worksheet or the whole accessories collection for kindergarten — each sheet prints cleanly in black and white or plays online for free.