About this game

Ladybugs land on a leaf. After two seconds they hide under it. The class says how many they saw, and a few children explain how they knew: "I saw 3 and 2."

Then you press Reveal. The ladybugs come back, each group gets a ring with its size, and the total shows at the top, for example "4 and 3 make 7". In the scattered layout the ladybugs land anywhere on the leaf, and in the reveal they walk into their groups.

How it works

1. Pick how many ladybugs (1 to 5, or 2 to 10), how they sit, and how long they stay on the leaf (1, 2 or 3 seconds).
2. Press Show the bugs or the space bar. The ladybugs land, then hide.
3. Ask the class how many there were and how they knew. Press R if they need another look.
4. Press the space bar to reveal the groups, and again for the next leaf.

Good for

• A five-minute warm-up at the start of a maths lesson
• Seeing small numbers without counting one by one
• Talking about the parts of 5 and 10