IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Kaitlyn and Aidan counting how many spots are left.

Recently, the kids were introduced to a new math game, Cover All. They take turns with a partner rolling a dice and adding that many cubes to their game mat. The last person to cover the last square is the winner. We have been practicing taking turns, being gracious winners and losers, and practicing counting and one to one correspondence.  Today while playing, I noticed Kaitlyn and Aidan were counting something but it wasn’t their cubes. I asked Kaitlyn what they were counting. “All the spots that are left! One, two, three, four, five, six seven!” Kaitlyn was counting the squares on the game board to see how many were left for their cubes.  I asked the kids, “What do you suppose will happen when we roll the dice again and add the cubes?” Each child had a different response- one thought more spaces would appear, one thought less. Aidan rolled the dice and added two cubes. We then counted the remaining spaces. “There are less!” Aidan said. We talked about how although we were adding cubes, the game was also similar to subtraction because the spaces on the board were becoming fewer and fewer. It leaves me asking myself a question, is this game more like addition or subtraction?

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