From pictures to numbers
Young children understand addition as putting groups together long before they can work with symbols alone. Picture problems keep that meaning in front of them: two groups to count, then the same problem written as a number sentence. When they count confidently, switch to Numbers only.
Three steps up
- Within 5. Small groups children can see at a glance.
- Within 10. The facts that make ten, the base of later mental math.
- Within 20. Adding to and taking from teen numbers.
Ready for more? The addition and subtraction worksheets go on to two- and three-digit numbers.
Provincial curriculum links
- BC KChange in quantity to 10 with concrete materials, such as build-and-change tasks.
- BC Grade 1Addition and subtraction to 20, with sums to 10 shown with objects, pictures and symbols.
- ON Grade 1–2Numbers up to 50, then solving problems with addition and subtraction in Grade 2.
BC spells out the sequence: objects first, then pictures, then symbols. These sheets are the picture step, with the number sentence written underneath so the symbols arrive with their meaning attached. Within 5 and within 10 fit BC Kindergarten and Grade 1; within 20 fits Grade 1, where mental strategies such as making 10 and doubles come in.
The crossed-out pictures on take-away problems show the change in quantity that BC’s Kindergarten build-and-change tasks explore with real objects. Act out a few with counters first, then let the sheet record the same idea.
Summarized in our own words from the BC Mathematics curriculum (K–1) and Ontario’s overview of The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1–8: Mathematics (2020).
