Give Me 10!

Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling

• Inform the students that instead of a recipe, you will create a math sentence that can describe how you composed the salad.
• Write the following math sentence on the board: Lettuce + Tomatoes + Carrots = Tossed Salad
• Challenge the students by playing with the construction of the sentence by moving the words around, stopping each time to ask if the math sentence is still true. For example: Carrots + Lettuce + Tomatoes = Tossed Salad; Tomatoes + Carrots + Lettuce = Tossed Salad. Both of these statements are still true!
• Turn up the challenge one last time by writing the following math sentence on the board: Carrots + Lettuce + Tomatoes = Tomatoes + Lettuce + Carrots. This statement is also true!

Guided Practice

• Draw a ten-frame by combining ten equal squares together, and then write the word decompose above it.
• Tell the students that you just composed a ten-frame by combining ten individual, smaller parts together, but that you will now be working to decompose the ten-frame.
• Explain that the definition of decompose is to separate something into smaller parts.
• Grab a die, and tell the students that you will be using the dice to help you write a math sentence that can help you decompose, or separate, the ten-frame into 3 smaller parts.
• Write the following math sentence beneath the ten-frame: ____ + __ + _____ = 10
• Roll the dice, and color in a representation of the number within the ten frame and math sentence. For example, if the dice rolls 4, write 4 in the math sentence, and color in four squares in the ten frame with a red marker.
• Now, the number sentence is 4 + __ + ___ = 10
• Repeat the exercise one more time. For example, if the dice rolls 5, color in 5 additional squares with a green marker. The sentence is now 4 + 5 + ___ = 10
• Stop and ask the students to predict which number the dice must roll to make 10. You can fill in the missing number at this point to complete the sentence.
• Explain to your students that the whole number 10 can be decomposed by separating it into the three smaller parts. Ask them to name those parts.
• Challenge the students one more time by writing the following math sentence on the board: 4 + 5 + 1 = 1 + 5 + 4
• Ask the students if the sentence is true. Explain to them how the sentence is, in fact, true because 9 + 1 = 10, and 1 + 9 = 10.
• Teach the students that this strategy is known in math as the associative property, which says that numbers can be added regardless of how they are grouped.
• Draw a new ten-frame, and roll the dice again. Repeat the exercise with only two turns this time. For example, if the dice rolls 3, color in three squares in the ten frame. The number sentence will be 4 + __= 10
• Ask the students to predict which number needs to be rolled by the dice. When they do so, write in the answer, and then demonstrate how the commutative property works by writing the following on the board: 4+6=6+4. The numbers are flipped but still equal the same value.

Independent working time

• Inform the students that they will now work on composing and decomposing a ten-frame with a partner.
• Have the students pair up, and provide each of them with a Give Me 10 worksheet and a pair of dice.
• Have the students take turns rolling the dice and coloring in the ten-frame.
• Allow them to refer back to the board for samples of the commutative and associative math sentences.