Early years teachers are great at coming up with resources to help with addition, without them just being rows of sums. The teacher writers at urbrainy.com have come up with some excellent resources for year 1, including this great little board game for two people which involves both using a strategy and knowing addition facts. It is best played with one adult and one child, but beware you may lose! You will need 2 dice, 2 sets of 5 different coloured counters or cubes plus a calculator and the games sheet.
Decide who is to go first.Player one goes first and rolls the two dice. Add up the total and place a counter on a square showing that number. If the number has already been covered it becomes the next players go. Then player 2 has their turn. Some numbers, such as 7, come up on the grid several times (as there is a greater chance of throwing a 7 than any other total) so it is important to think about which 7 the counter is placed on.
The winner is the first person to put three counters in a row, across, down or diagonally. Sometimes it is more important to block the opponent than to try to create your own 3 in a row.
This game can be found in our Year 1 Calculating category