April 14, 2024
Friends of 5 is one of the first skills that we work on during our addition and subtraction unit. It is an important skill that improves number sense and exposes students to decomposing numbers into pairs. So we’ve compiled a list of activities, resources, and videos to help you teach friends of 5 in your classroom!
Friends of 5 are ways that the number 5 can be broken up. You can have 0 and 5, 1 and 4, 2 and 3 and all of their reversals.
There are numerous ways to represent this concept. I have highlighted a few of our favorite below. All of these are easily transferred to other numbers as well. We always start at decomposing 5, but we also work on 6, 7, 8, 9, and eventually 10!
Snap cubes are a great way to work on this standard. Give students 5 snap cubes. They break it apart. They talk about the partners of 5. Repeat until all partners are found.
Counters are another fabulous tool to use. We love to “shake, shake, drop” our 5 counters and see how many yellows and how many reds we get. Students work on saying the phrase “__ and __ make 5”. For example, “3 and 2 make 5!”
I want my students to have the hands on experiences listed above, but I also want them to see the numerals written as well. We create a poster to show what we have learned. Students are able to reference this throughout our unit. This is great to go back to after students start decomposing other numbers too!
These are 2 of my favorite videos to help teach this concept. We use the Monkey video to introduce the concept. We use the Jack Hartmann Video to review this concept throughout the unit.
Just Dance Kids – Five Little Monkeys
With Unmatched Printables & Engaging Classroom Ideas, Simply Kinder is your TRUSTED TEAMMATE.
Get our emails loaded with free resources, teaching ideas, and so much more!
You might also like:
