Printable guide · ages 6–8

Fıstık’s Number Connections

Use exact counters and equations to connect a picture, a spoken explanation and a number. Each lesson has four explanations, three activities and a new making task. A correct card is evidence for this task only.

Materials: The on-screen models are sufficient. Optional large paper cards and counters chosen by an adult. No money, purchase, account or personal performance profile is used.

Open the lessons

What to notice

Notice how the child uses one ten as ten ones, equal line steps and the stated change in a story. Invite a spoken, pointed or card-based explanation; allow a pause and another attempt.

Ask “How does your model show that?” Completion stars are not a timed test, diagnosis or proof of mastery. Let a child revisit an earlier representation.

Lesson 1

Tens and ones

Goal: Represent a two-digit number as whole tens and remaining ones.

Keep every rod visibly divided into ten units. Accept counting all units before moving to counting the ten as one group. Avoid presenting a long rod as an arbitrary colour code.

Starting point: Compare one rod with ten loose units in the drawing.
A helpful phrase: “How many ones are inside this ten?”
A common mix-up: The digit 2 in 23 represents twenty, not two ones.
Notice the transfer: Change from fourteen to sixteen without changing the unit.

Show: New number: build sixteen from its tens and ones.

Lesson 2

Unit steps on a number line

Goal: Use equally spaced unit marks to locate a value and its immediate neighbours up to twenty.

The line is a labelled window within 0–20, not a new line starting at zero. Keep spacing equal and distinguish tick marks from travelled gaps. The full-size model and its text alternative remain available.

Starting point: Read the window’s first and last labels.
A helpful phrase: “Start there, then count the gaps you move.”
A common mix-up: Counting the start as a move gives an extra step.
Notice the transfer: Move the reference from ten to sixteen in a new window.

Show: New window: place the immediate neighbours of sixteen.

Lesson 3

Parts and a whole

Goal: Compose a whole from two parts and find a missing part of that same whole.

Treat part/whole as roles, not three quantities to total together. Allow counting all counters, counting on or explaining the relation. No speed target is set.

Starting point: Locate both parts before naming the whole.
A helpful phrase: “Where is each counter included?”
A common mix-up: The whole is not an extra third part.
Notice the transfer: Change seven into nine while changing the known part.

Show: New whole nine, known part four. Build the missing part and whole.

Lesson 4

Make ten to add

Goal: Split one addend into a part that completes ten and a remaining part.

Splitting an addend must conserve its total. Show the moved counters and the remainder explicitly. Counting all remains a valid check rather than an error or failure.

Starting point: Find the gap from nine to ten.
A helpful phrase: “How much of the second part fills that gap?”
A common mix-up: The remainder does not disappear after making ten.
Notice the transfer: Change eight plus five to seven plus five.

Show: New sum seven plus five: split five to make ten, then keep the remainder.

Lesson 5

Take away and keep the remainder

Goal: Represent taking away as removing a stated part from a starting quantity.

Crosses show removal without erasing the starting quantity. Do not count crossed counters as remaining. Real objects or fine-motor dragging are unnecessary.

Starting point: Find the crossed and uncrossed parts separately.
A helpful phrase: “Which counters are still in the group?”
A common mix-up: The number removed is not the same as the number left.
Notice the transfer: Use nine minus two after eight minus three.

Show: New quantity: nine start and two are removed. Build removed and remaining parts.

Lesson 6

Find a missing value

Goal: Determine a missing addend or removed amount from a stated one-step equality.

Read the role of the unknown before calculating. The equal sign describes the same amount on both sides, not a command to append an answer. Use substitution as the check.

Starting point: Locate the question mark before using the numbers.
A helpful phrase: “What job does the missing number have here?”
A common mix-up: A missing removed amount differs from the remainder.
Notice the transfer: Move the missing part to before the plus sign.

Show: New equality ? + 4 = 11: place the missing part, then the known part.

Lesson 7

Count in equal jumps

Goal: Continue a stated additive sequence with constant steps of two, five or ten.

The sequence rule and starting value are explicit. Do not claim a finite sequence has only one possible mathematical rule in the abstract; uniqueness here is relative to the stated constant step.

Starting point: Say the step size before the sequence.
A helpful phrase: “What stays the same between neighbouring values?”
A common mix-up: A term value is not the number of jumps made.
Notice the transfer: Change the starting value while keeping the step two.

Show: New start four, same jump two. Build four values.

Lesson 8

One change in a picture story

Goal: Model a one-step quantity story using its start, joining or leaving amount and result.

All stories are fictional and use one stated change. Counters stand one-to-one for the named objects. Do not introduce price, money or a second unstated step; invite the child to explain joining versus leaving.

Starting point: Name the starting quantity and what changes.
A helpful phrase: “Are things joining or leaving in this story?”
A common mix-up: Two numbers in a story do not automatically mean addition.
Notice the transfer: Change from acorns to birds with a new starting amount.

Show: New bird story: seven start, four leave. Build the leaving and remaining amounts.

This set's progress

Completed lessons stay in this browser. Resetting this set keeps all other Kids lessons and other products' data.