[This is a back-issue of this website’s newsletter]
I invented this game to help my son pick up basic addition facts, like 6+1=7. He would be able to give the correct answers, but I wanted it to become more automatic. Fish Plus One, and its cousins Fish Plus Two, Fish Plus Three and so forth, do the trick.
Fish Plus One is just like normal Fish, except that a “pair” becomes two cards that differ by 1, instead of by nothing at all. When playing Fish Plus One, the child will be continually on the lookout for numbers that are related by adding one, as he or she searches for pairs. Repetition – with concentration – is a key to memory, so this will surely do some good…!
I was hoping to make a movie clip of my son playing Fish Plus One, but with one thing and another, it just hasn’t happened yet. The “flavor of the month”, this month at least, seems to be Junior Monopoly. Ah well, there’s still some math to be picked up there, which I’ll write about someday soon.
In the meantime, read about Fish Plus One and its cousins at Dr Mike’s Math Games for Kids. Get your younger kids (kindergarten and grade 1) playing, and later graduate them to Fish Plus Plus – a more challenging game for slightly older kids!
Yours,
Michael Hartley