The "Adding Groups of Items and Completing Addition Problems Within 10" worksheet shows two different groups of items side by side. Students then complete the addition problem below. They add items like clouds, birds, and flowers, but they also add dots and squares that are reminiscent of counting materials they are used to working within the classroom, like counting cubes.

The first addition problems on the worksheet contain two addends of up to 10, with students filling in the answers. Subsequent problems give students the answer. They must look at the picture and write the addends that match. There are also opportunities for students to draw their own pictures to represent the addends in the boxes in order to get the answer that's provided.

Using pictures to help students learn foundational counting skills is an effective way to help them visualize what they're counting. It also allows them to see combinations of items that equal the same number, encouraging them to move away from one-to-one correspondence and imagine numbers as groups of items, enabling them to get the answer without counting by ones.

You can further support these skills by having students fill in the addends in order to get an answer. For example, students may see two boxes, one with nine dots and one with one dot. If the answer is "10," students count the dots and complete the problem by writing "9+1."