Doubles

Resources

Use either two dice tailored to the needs of your learners (e.g. only 3,4 and 5 on each face) or two regular dice. Give the children the dice dot cards or number cards depending on their level and experience.

Target strategies

automaticity with doubles to double 6

familiarity with near doubles

relating doubling to halving

introducing more formal language for number, e.g., total.

Closed Questions

These are made up to match the dice

I have 6 dots on my dice. What was my double?

I have thrown double five. What is my total?

I have seven dots, what was the near double?

Open Questions

These are made up to match the throws of the dice

I have thrown a double. What might my dice be showing?

I have thrown a near double. What might my dice be showing?

Show me a number of dots that cannot be made with a double.

Flip Questions

Also made up to match the throws of the dice

Guess my double/near double. You may ask me questions to find out the double showing on my two dice. Questions could include:

"Is the number of dots greater than 6?"

"Is the number of dots on each dice between 1 and 4?

As the children gain experience encourage more variety in the language of the questions, for example:

"Is the total between 5 and 7?"

"Is the total an even number?"

Reflection

"What does the word double mean?"

"How does knowing doubles help with other number facts?"