Lay the foundation for this lesson! Use the Adderpillar™ mat (and any available manipulatives) to give students hands-on experience building “Little Doubles” Addition facts. (For this lesson, have students use only the first two sections of the Adderpillar’s body.)  Play the Addition singalongs whenever time allows to reinforce the concept of Addition and Addition vocabulary.

PROCEDURE: The first time this activity is introduced, read or watch Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Explain to students that they have a very hungry adderpillar™  who likes to eat gummy bears (adapt to fit your manipulatives).

Model: Write a Doubles fact on the board: 3 + 3 = ___ for example, and say, “When our adderpillar™ first woke up, he was hungry, so he ate 3 gummy bears.  Point to the “3” in your equation and then to the first empty section of the adderpillar’s body. Say, “Our first addend is 3. By mid-morning, he was hungry again and ate 3 more gummy bears.”  (Point to the other “3” in the  equation and place 3 gummy bears in the second section of the adderpillar™. Say, “Our next addend is also 3.”) Ask, “How many gummy bears did he eat in all? What is the SUM?” Refer back to your equation and ask students to find the sum. Record. Continue modeling with different Doubles facts as needed.

Practice: Have students practice building this lesson’s Doubles facts independently or with a partner using their Adderpillar™ mat and manipulatives.  Follow up each fact building session with an Addition Concept Builder. Place the Adderpillar™ mat and manipulatives in a Math center for continued practice.

TO ENSURE SUCCESS, show an instructional video daily to familiarize students with new facts/strategies. Assign purposeful follow-up practice using the accompanying Fluency Builder. Do not enforce a strict time limit yet.  Allow students the needed time to use the strategies learned. Monitor for consistent, correct (not automatic) recall. For additional practice throughout the day, engage students in class competitions with the accuracy building Smartboard games. Assess and move onto Fluency Building (Segment 3) when students demonstrate readiness.

Move from accuracy to automaticity! TO ENSURE SUCCESS, students should already have developed accurate, untimed recall with the lesson’s focus facts (see Segment 2). Assign the Fluency Builder activity daily using one of the suggested formats. Have students track their own progress using the speed check chart. For additional practice throughout the day, show the Fast Facts video or engage students in class competitions with the fluency building games.

Show the Subtraction video daily to provide repeated exposure to the reciprocity of Addition and Subtraction. Follow up each video lesson with a Logical Links page to give students practice in applying their knowledge of this lesson’s focus facts to their Subtraction counterparts. Continue on to fluency-building with the lesson’s Subtraction facts when students demonstrate readiness as per the Logical Links pages (see Subtraction Fluency Builder). The motivating, research-based Speed Check Chart can be used with the Subtraction fluency builder to track personal progress toward Subtraction fluency goals.