Addition children can see
Number sentences can look like code to a five-year-old. Here, each of the six rows shows two groups of festive pictures with a plus sign between them, and the child counts to find the total. They learn what the plus sign means from something they can see, ahead of working with numbers alone.
Act it out first
Set out small objects before starting: wrapped candies, buttons or little bells. Make a group of three and a group of two, then slide them together and count. Tell it as a story too: "Three presents under the tree, two more arrive. How many now?" Stories like that are how young children first make sense of adding.
From counting everything to counting on
To begin with, most children count every picture, starting from one. In time, some start from the first group's number and carry on counting: "Three... four, five." Listen for this and point it out when you hear it, as counting on is a real step towards adding in your head.
Differentiating in December
Choose "Numbers up to" 5 for a child who is still building confidence. A child who finds this easy could cover the pictures with a strip of paper and try to do the sum first, then lift the strip to check. The answer key is on a separate page.