TAKE-HOME STRATEGY

Supporting Operations at Home

Aerial view of child-sized shoes beside backpack

What It's About

Operations is all about joining sets together or separating them into equal or unequal parts. Children use their developing Operations skills every day! For example, when they figure out how many more crackers they need to have to get to five. Or when they share a set of cars equally with a friend. 

You can support your child’s Operations skills by providing hands-on opportunities for them to focus on combining, separating, or equally distributing sets of objects.

ACTIVITY CHOICE BOARD

Here are some ways you can support Operations at home. Keep in mind that you can change these activities to work for you and your child, based on their current abilities, interests, and what you have available at home. Make sure to use safe materials and watch your child closely during these activities.

Take a look, and try out your favorites!

Add Ingredients

While cooking together, talk about totals and adding as you combine ingredients. For example, “We need two cups of flour. Here’s one cup. Now we need to add one more cup. One cup and one more cup is two cups of flour in the bowl!”

Make a Book

Create your own operations book. Draw sets of objects either growing or shrinking by one on each page. For example, show one car on the first page, then two cars on the next page, then three.

Sing and Subtract

Sing subtraction songs! For example, “5 little speckled frogs sat on a speckled log, eating some most delicious bugs. Yum! Yum! 1 jumped into the pool, where it was nice and cool, now there are 4 speckled frogs.”

Word Problems

Challenge your child by asking them to solve word problems using their fingers or objects. For example, “If you have two dinosaurs and I give you one more dinosaur, how many dinosaurs will you have altogether?”

Sharing Fairly

Let your child practice sharing fairly at meals. For example, how can four people share eight crackers fairly? Model how to pass them out one at a time, so everyone gets the same amount.

Roll and Count

Play games where children have to add or take away as part of the game. For example, when rolling two dice, children will have to add the dots on both dice to see how many spaces they need to move on the game board.

Quick Cues for Supporting Operations

Some things you might do or say to help strengthen your child’s Operation skills

Model Addition and Subtraction

Show your child how to put objects together or separate them.

This can sound like:

“I have five dollars to spend at the store. Can I buy that doll for three dollars? Okay, here are three dollars. How many do I have left? I’ll count, 1, 2. I have two dollars left.”

“Look, there are two butterflies on this bush. One more butterfly came to join them. Two butterflies plus one more butterfly makes three butterflies. ”

“We need two teaspoons of soy sauce in this recipe. We added one teaspoon, so now we need to add one more teaspoon. That will be two teaspoons.”

Encourage Your Child to Add and Subtract

Let your child try out adding and subtracting using objects.

This can sound like:

“You took one sip of water. Can you take three more sips? How many sips of water did you drink?”

“You have two cookies already, but you just asked me for one more. If I give you another one, how many cookies will you have?”

“You have five carrots. Oh, you ate one! How many do you have now?”

Prompt Sharing Fairly

Show your child how to pass out objects equally or have them practice with your help.

This can sound like:

“I know you all want to play with cars on our ramps. Let’s make sure you all get the same number of cars. I’ll pass out one to each of you, and now I’ll pass out another one to each of you. You each have two cars to play with!”

“In this game, we are supposed to have the same number of bears. If there are four bears, we have to deal them out one at a time so we each get the same amount.”

“You are going to share these slices of cheese with your brother. There are six slices. Can you pass them out so you both get the same amount?”

Our Book Recommendations for Operations

Engaging stories that support children’s Operation skills
Caps for Sale Title Page

Caps for Sale

Written and illustrated by Esphyr Slobodkina, this classic tale of a peddler and his colorful caps gives open-ended opportunities to try adding and splitting up different amounts.

Have fun with it: 
Find as many hats as you can throughout your home. Pretend to be a peddler with your child while adding and taking away caps.

Lunas Yum Yum Dim Sum Book Cover

Luna’s Yum Yum Dim Sum

Written by Natasha Yim and illustrated by Violet Kim, this story shows how three siblings figure out a way to evenly share their delicious Chinese dim sum lunch.

Have fun with it:
Create a snack plate with multiples of the same foods such as grapes, cookies, or crackers. Encourage your child to figure out how many each of you would get.

More Strategies

We’re creating a library of resources like these so families can quickly and easily promote children’s development at home. Be sure to see all the strategies we have available!

visit our take-home strategy library