Doubles and Halves: First Steps with Groups to Count

Foxes do the counting on this 1st grade doubles and halves page. Four cards, two marked double and two marked half, each hold a white box of animal pictures with an equation underneath. On the doubles cards a dashed teal line splits two matching groups of foxes and the fact below reads 3 + 3 = with an empty box. On the halves cards a dashed orange arrow cuts a bigger group in two and the line below reads 6 = and two empty boxes to fill.

Small numbers and countable pictures are what make this the starting point. Every group can be checked by eye - three foxes and three foxes, six foxes split into three and three - so the child sees the double and the half as the same picture read two ways before either becomes a remembered fact. The dashed line is doing quiet work here: it shows that halving means a fair split into two equal parts, not simply a smaller number.

Print the PDF free and let the child draw over the dashed line on a doubles card to see the mirror, then count each side. Four cards is short enough for a first sitting. The to 20 version is the next step - eight cards, no pictures at all, and doubles from five to ten with the matching halves. Number walls put these same small sums inside a pyramid, and the number line page is useful alongside for counting the halves out.