Addition with Christmas — Kindergarten

Some rows here are add-and-total, some are find-the-part. In the first kind the child counts a group of trees, baubles and a stocking, reads a number, and writes how many in all; in the second the total is given with one part shown, and the child finds the part that fills the gap — the same thinking as making ten. Mixing the two keeps the child reading each row rather than repeating one move, and every amount stays small enough to check by counting.

Seeing that a handful of Christmas things 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 christmas 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 classroom objects, or try addition with faces (black & white). You can also browse every addition worksheet or the whole Christmas things collection for kindergarten — each sheet prints cleanly in black and white or plays online for free.