Math Game - Penny Plate

Today students learned a math game called "Penny Plate". In this game each partnership of students received ten pennies and a plate. Partners took turns hiding some of their ten pennies underneath the plate and setting the remaining pennies on top of the plate. The opposite partner then had to guess the number of pennies that were under the plate by counting the pennies on top, knowing that there are ten in all. The goal of this game is to get students more familiar with the pairs of numbers that add to ten. It is our hope that these pairs will come more easily to students and get to be automatic since knowing the pairs that add to ten can help students to solve many other math facts as well. 

This would be a great skill to practice at home, through playing Penny Plate or any other method you can think of! 

*Another method of practicing this skill is to put ten of something with two sides in a cup, shake the cup, dump out the items, and then count how many of each are showing (knowing that the sum is always ten). When I have used this activity in the past I have painted dry beans half white/half red. When students dump out the beans they can solve "# of white beans + # of red beans = 10 total beans".