Number Bonds Viz
Number Bonds Viz is an app designed for parents and/or mentors of young learners to engage together in developing number sense and to begin to develop a recall of number bonds that will help to develop confidence in building mathematical knowledge.
The "Spot to Five" activity gives the learner chance to practice their skill of subitising, i.e. recognising an amount without counting. Although to begin with the learners can count to establish "how many", they can be encouraged to "see" how many by the shape the dots create.
This is an underused skill that can support the development of mental arithmetic strategies and of course helps the learner to appreciate size and link the symbol of a number with a sense of the number itself
The "Match it up" activity further encourages the learners to make a link between the size of the number and the symbol that represents that number. As well as numbers given as dots or fingers the numbers are represented by the abstract symbol which the learners have to pair off.
It's a good idea to use the sound on the app which tells the learner when a pair has been made or not. Like each activity the challenge is to achieve eight green ticks!
The "Spot to Ten" activity encourages the learner to go beyond subitising and start to develop mental addition strategies. Parents and mentors should be aware that if a learner's only strategy for finding the total is by counting, then they may not be ready for this activity just yet. Instead, learners may benefit from activities with actual items to touch and move. Manipulatives such a bottle tops or pebbles can be used as counters but also objects such as toys and other everyday objects.
Parents who are concerned about learners who persist in using counting as a strategy may wish to read the section on Dyscalculia.
The "Find the Total" and "Fill the Gap" activities begin to formalise the addition process. Parents and mentors will recognise when the learners are ready for "Find the Total" as this mimics what they may often do when play simple games with dice.
The "Fill the Gap" activity may best be played once the young learner has begun to engage with this sort of symbolism at school and most teachers will happily advise parents about the suitability of this activity.
Note: That the number sentence is best read to the child to begin with to help them understand and realise the equals sign can appear in different places.