Supplemental Lesson:

Halving
Teach this lesson any time between Lesson 4 (Doubling as an Addition Strategy)
and Lesson 16 (Cutting 10 Groups of 10 in Half x5).

Fluency practice:
Numeral Naming – Practice the deck 1-2 times. Set aside the even numerals as you
go, so that you can use them later for this lesson.
Subitizing – Practice the deck 1-2 times.

Halving:
Provide the student with a 100 Chart, plenty of transparent blue counters, and
plenty of transparent red counters that can fit on the 100 Chart. Show the student
the Subitizing 4-dot card. Say, What quantity is this? Yes, this is 4 dots. What
numeral on the 100 Chart corresponds to this quantity? Yes, the numeral 4. If
you wanted to decompose 4 into two equal groups, what would be the quantity
in each group? How do you know? Can you show me with counters? Can you
show me on the 100 Chart? To demonstrate equal groups on the 100 Chart, have
the student place a red counter on 1 and a blue counter on 4. Then, place a red
counter on 2 and blue counter on 3, so that the numerals 1-2 are red, and the
numerals 3-4 are blue. Guide the student to discover and discuss that the number of
counters representing 1-2 and 3-4 are equal, and each group represents half the
quantity. Prove it by counting each and stating that the two groups met in the
middle. Say, The process of decomposing a quantity into two equal groups is
called Halving or Cutting in Half. Today we are going to explore some
important patterns when Halving quantities.

Activities:
1. Use cards from the Numeral Naming deck (evens only). Show one card at a
time to the student and ask her to locate the numeral on the 100 Chart.
Repeat the steps from the introduction activity, having the student place red
counters starting with 1 and blue counters starting from the given numeral

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 until they meet in the middle. Confirm by counting that the number of blue
counters is the same at the number of red counters. After each numeral is
halved, discuss Activity 2. Guide the student to discover and discuss that
half the given quantity is the last numeral with a red counter on it, and that
the number of blue counters is equal to the number of red counters.
2. After each numeral is halved using the steps of Activity 1, have the student
take one red and one blue counter at a time and place them in an array of two
rows. Have the student skip count by 2s as she arranges them. Once all the
counter pairs are taken off the 100 Chart and arranged in red/blue pairs, ask,
What was the last number you said after skip counting? It should be the
same number as the numeral you saw on the card. Now count how
many pairs of red and blue you made while arranging the counters in
twos. It should be exactly half. What does this tell you about the
relationship between skip counting by 2 and Halving?
3. Say, Think back to our lessons on Doubling. What is the relationship
between Doubling and Halving? Provide the student with either grid paper
or a multiplication chart, and have her complete a row skip counting by 2s.
Then have the student complete a row counting by 1s. Ask the student to
discuss examples of Halving on this chart.
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

4. Using grid paper or a multiplication chart, have the student skip count by
another pair of numbers such as 6s/3s, 8s/4s, 12s/6s, and repeat the
discussion from activity 3.

Activities 5-11 are especially designed to prepare the student for Lesson 16:
Cutting 10 Groups in Half (x5)

5. Using grid paper or a multiplication chart, ask the student to repeat the steps
of Activity 3, skip counting by 10s and 5s. Repeat the discussion from
Activity 3.
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120

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5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60

6. After Activity 5, summarize the relationship between Doubling and Halving

again. Say, The chart shows us that because 5 is half of 10, any number
of groups of 5 will always be half of the same number of groups of 10.
Be sure to have the student repeat this concept in her own words, using
prompting questions and manipulating the bundles of straws to guide
thinking if needed.
7. On the chart of 10s and 5s, have the student highlight 20, 40, 60, 80, 100,
and 120 and their corresponding halves (5s) in yellow. Ask the student to
discuss any patterns she sees, particularly paying attention to the digits in the
tens place. After discussion, say, If we know that half of 2 is 1, then we
know that half of 20 is 10, because we can find half of the digit in the
tens place. This is especially easy when there is a 0 in the ones place.
Why is that? What is half of 0? How does that help us find half of one of
these multiples of 10?
8. Using straws that have been bundled into groups of 10 in the same manner
as Lesson 15, have the student count out 20 straws. Ask the student to show
what half of 20 would be using the bundles. Repeat this process for the
quantities 40, 60, 80, 100, and 120. Ask, Did you have to decompose any
of the bundles to cut these quantities in half? No, you were able to find
half the groups and state the total without unbundling any of them.
These are the quantities you highlighted in yellow.
9. On the chart of 10s and 5s, have the student highlight 10, 30, 50, 70, 90, and
110 and their corresponding halves in orange. Ask, What do all of these
multiples of 10 have in common? (The digit in the tens place is odd.)
What do all of their halves have in common? (They all have a 5 in the
ones place.) Do you think that cutting these numbers in half will be
easier, harder, or about the same as the yellow numbers? Why?
10. Using the same bundles from Activity 8, have the student count out 1
bundle and state the total of 10. Ask, What do you need to do to
demonstrate half of 10? Yes, you’d have to decompose this group of 10
into two equal groups of 5. What is half of 10?
11. Have the student count out 30 using the same bundles. Ask, Can you
simply cut the groups in half the way you did before? Why not? Guide

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 the student to discover and discuss that 30 groups of 10 cannot be evenly cut
in half without taking one of the bundles apart, and one group of 10 will
need to be decomposed. After doing so, state what half of 30 is. Repeat these
steps with 50, 70, 90, and 110. Say, For these numbers that you
highlighted in orange, you will need to decompose the quantity by
separating one group of 10, cut the rest of the groups in half, then split
that first group of 10 into 5 and 5. That is a lot more steps, and it
requires you to use your working memory. Keep this process in mind
for our lesson in mental math strategies for multiplying by 5.
12. Introduce the Cut it in half card for Number Strings.
13. Introduce the Halving Deck, including even numerals 2-24, as well as
multiples of 10 between 30-120. Practice the deck 1-2 times.

© Anna Silveira 2023