Combinations of 5, 10 and 20

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It is so important for students to be fluent with combinations of 5, 10, 20 and 100.  I have written about some of the quick and easy games and routines I do with students to help with these skills several times.

     Here is a game where you just need 2 color counters or pennies.  NO PREP!
     Here is how to extend the last game for combinations of 20
     Here is a bunch of quick and easy ways I work on combinations of 100
     Here is how to make 100 bead strings that will really help your students with combinations of 100
     Here is a list of 8 different ways I build numeracy with 20 frames

Today I want to share with you how I use the classic card game of go fish to work on combinations of numbers.  This can be done for combinations of 5, 10 or 100 as well depending on the cards you used.  This day I was working with second graders and was working on combinations of 20.

I have ten frame cards that I got out of this book (which is my favorite book for all things ten frame!).  The book also has double ten frames (aka 20 frames) but does not have them in card size.  Since I am completely incompetent at using the copier to shrink things, I just made my own.

Here is a look at my 20 frame cards.  If you want to use these with your students, you can click here to download them from Google drive.  

I made 2 copies of each page for each deck.  I made the decks on different colored cardstock so that I could keep them from getting mixed up.

I showed this game to a small group of kids and had them share it with their classmates.  Each kid got 5 cards to start.  They look for any matches.  A match is any 2 cards (it has to be 2 cards!) that make 20.  After everyone has checked their own deck for matches, they choose someone and ask them for a card.  They ask like this.  "Do you have a 12 to go with my 8 to make 20?"  and the other person responds "yes I do (or no I don't) have a 12 to go with your 8 to make 20."  I know this is incredibly specific, but I think it is important that kids are verbalizing these combinations.  They usually need a few reminders when they start to play but quickly pick up on it and it becomes part of the game.

These particular students had already played this game with 10 frames last year and earlier this year so they had no trouble getting started.

A student's "matches"

A student asks for a 3 to with her 17 to make 20.

Stay tuned later this week or next for another game that uses these 20 frame cards!  You might also want to check out 8 ways to use 20 frames!