Charlie’s Bridge Team

Charlie and Rose were building a pretend bridge in the playground. They wanted their toy animals to cross a blue cloth river. “This bridge needs a team,” said Charlie. He carried three large wooden blocks.

Rose came over with two more blocks. She put them beside Charlie’s group. “Will these help?” she asked. Charlie looked at the two groups. “We can join them and see how many we have.”

Charlie touched his blocks. “One, two, three.” Rose touched hers. “One, two.” They kept a small space between the groups. The blocks were easy to see, and neither child had to guess.

Then they pushed the groups together. Charlie counted every block once. “One, two, three, four, five.” Rose smiled. “Three blocks and two more make five blocks altogether. That should help our bridge!”

They laid the five blocks across the narrow cloth river. But one block turned on its side. A toy horse could not cross the bumpy bridge. “Our number is right,” said Charlie, “but our building needs work.”

Their teacher came to look. “What could make the top flat?” she asked. Rose turned the sideways block. Charlie lined up the others. They used the same five blocks, with no extra blocks.

Charlie moved the toy horse slowly over the bridge. This time it crossed without falling. Rose sent a toy sheep after it. “We joined our blocks,” she said, “and we joined our ideas too.”

Before they packed away, Charlie made two groups again: three blocks and two blocks. Then he joined them. There were still five altogether. “Three and two make five,” he said. “Our bridge team worked!”