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Resources and Tools for Elementary Math Specialists and Teachers

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This web page provides instructions for a game that develops number sense, basic addition and subtraction skills, and strategic thinking. Beginning with 10 Cuisenaire rods, one of each length from 1 (white) and 10 (orange), two players take turns adding one rod at a time to a train until it reaches a previously agreed-on length between 11 and 55. The player who puts down the last rod to complete the goal length is the winner. The game can be played with real rods, with the Flash applet provided, or with numbers on paper.

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Contributed by: Millennium Mathematics Project, Publisher

Math TopicNumber Sense, Basic Operations, Number Concepts, Mathematical Practices, Mathematical Processes

Grade Level1, 2, 3, 4

Resource TypeActivity, Game, Interactive Media

Additional Information
- AudienceLearner
- LanguageEnglish (USA), English (United Kingdom), Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish
- Education Topic
- Interdisciplinary Connection
- Professional DevelopmentNo
- ContributorMillennium Mathematics Project, Publisher
- Publication Date2005-10
- RightsCopyright (c) 2007 University of Cambridge
  http://nrich.maths.org/public/terms.php
- AccessFree access
Standards
- Common Core State Standards for Mathematics
  Select a standards document:
- Standards for Mathematical Practice[K-12]
- Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.[K-12]
- Reason abstractly and quantitatively.[K-12]
- Look for and make use of structure.[K-12]
- Operations and Algebraic Thinking[K - 5]
- Understand and apply properties of operations and the relationship between addition and subtraction.[1]
- 4. Understand subtraction as an unknown-addend problem. For example, subtract 10 — 8 by finding the number that makes 10 when added to 8.[1]
- Add and subtract within 20.[1 - 2]
- 5. Relate counting to addition and subtraction (e.g., by counting on 2 to add 2).[1]
- 6. Add and subtract within 20, demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 10. Use strategies such as counting on; making ten (e.g., 8 + 6 = 8 + 2 + 4 = 10 + 4 = 14); decomposing a number leading to a ten (e.g., 13 — 4 = 13 — 3 — 1 = 10 — 1 = 9); using the relationship between addition and subtraction (e.g., knowing that 8 + 4 = 12, one knows 12 — 8 = 4); and creating equivalent but easier or known sums (e.g., adding 6 + 7 by creating the known equivalent 6 + 6 + 1 = 12 + 1 = 13).[1]
- 2. Fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies. By end of Grade 2, know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers.[2]
- Number and Operations in Base Ten[K - 5]
- Use place value understanding and properties of operations to add and subtract.[1 - 2]
- 4. Add within 100, including adding a two-digit number and a one-digit number, and adding a two-digit number and a multiple of 10, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used. Understand that in adding two-digit numbers, one adds tens and tens, ones and ones; and sometimes it is necessary to compose a ten.[1]
- 5. Fluently add and subtract within 100 using strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction.[2]
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Common Core State Standards for Mathematics