Counting Feet: Addition to 10 & 20 PowerPoint is a playful and purposeful way to reinforce early addition strategies and number recognition. Perfect for Foundation and Year 1 students, this interactive activity brings numbers to life through a feet-counting theme inspired by the popular book One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab.

This resource invites students to use visual reasoning and number knowledge to determine whether a statement is true or false. Each slide shows a combination of characters (like dogs, snails and spiders), along with a statement about the total number of feet. Students give a thumbs up or down depending on whether they agree. It’s a great way to explore partitioning, combinations to 10 and 20, and build fluency in a low-stakes, high-fun format.

To prepare your class, first introduce or revisit the number of feet each animal or character has: Snail = 1, Person = 2, Dog = 4, Insect = 6, Spider = 8, Crab = 10. Once familiar, students are ready to dive into the game – counting feet, building number combinations, and justifying their reasoning along the way!

Key Learning Outcomes:

• ✅ Use visual cues to support early addition strategies
• ✅ Count and add numbers to 10 and 20 using contextual clues
• ✅ Distinguish between true and false number statements
• ✅ Apply knowledge of number combinations and partitioning
• ✅ Build fluency and reasoning when solving simple equations
• ✅ Develop confidence in verbalising mathematical thinking

What’s Included:

• Interactive PowerPoint with true/false feet-counting scenarios
• Visual cues using animals and characters to represent number values
• Embedded progression of difficulty, from basic counting to 2-digit addition

Materials Needed:

• Interactive whiteboard or screen display
• Mini whiteboards and markers for student working out (optional)
• Anchor chart or classroom visual showing each character’s number of feet
• Counters, cubes or manipulatives for concrete modelling (optional)

How to Use:

1. Introduce or revisit the book One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab with your students.
2. Review the number of feet associated with each animal or character.
3. Open the PowerPoint and present each slide in slideshow mode.
4. Have students determine if the statement is true or false based on the visual.
5. Encourage students to explain their reasoning and use whiteboards to record number sentences.

Ideas for Classroom Use:

• 💡 Use as a warm-up during your addition or number sense unit
• 💡 Turn into a team quiz – students must agree on the answer and show a group response
• 💡 Use in small group rotations for targeted practise with support materials
• 💡 Have students create their own counting feet problems using drawn or cut-out characters
• 💡 Challenge advanced learners to generate multiple combinations to reach the same total

Top Teacher Tips:

• 💛 Display the character-to-feet chart prominently for ongoing reference
• 💛 Reinforce addition strategies such as counting on, doubles and bridging to 10 during play
• 💛 Extend learning by asking students to create their own true or false feet statements to share with the class
• 💛 Encourage the use of sentence starters like “I know this is true because...” to develop mathematical language

Counting Feet: Addition to 10 & 20 PowerPoint is a creative and curriculum-aligned tool to strengthen counting, reasoning and addition skills – with a colourful twist your students will love!

This resource is part of our One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab: Maths Book PACKAGE.