Doubles to 20: Bigger Groups, Still Something to Count

Ten and ten is the biggest fact on this 1st grade doubles and halves page, and it takes twenty small vehicles to show it. Six cards run down the sheet in two columns, every one labelled double, and each holds a group of five to ten pictures beside its mirror image with a thin teal line between them. The fact is printed underneath: 10 + 10 =, 6 + 6 =, 8 + 8 =, 9 + 9 =, 5 + 5 =, 7 + 7 =, each with an empty box. The pictures are small, and there are a great many of them.

This is the top of the doubles range that first grade is asked to know, and it is also where counting every picture stops being practical. Twenty little trucks in two groups can be counted, but by the third card most children have found something better to do: count one side, then say the double, or reach for 5 + 5 to get at 6 + 6. That shift is the whole purpose of putting large groups on the page rather than small ones. If a child is still touching each picture on card six, the facts are not yet stored and the smaller page is the right place to go back to.

Print the PDF free and cover one side of the picture box with a card for the last two facts, so only one group can be counted and the double has to be said. Doubles to 14 is the gentler version with groups of two to seven, halves to 20 with pictures is the matching page in the other direction, and doubles to 20 with just the numbers is where the pictures go and only the facts remain.