So I have been blessed with being able to have the experience of teaching first grade for 4 years and am in my 3rd year in 2nd grade. The progression and the growth in conceptual understanding with number sense and being able to start to add and subtract is a beautiful thing to watch unfold! When students have grasped the value of digits and have a solid number sense, you can then move onto introducing some addition strategies! Or maybe you need some subtraction strategies to help your students, don't miss that post here ----> Subtraction Strategies for building conceptual understanding.
A great kickoff to introducing any skill, is a great read aloud. The Good Neighbors Store an Award by Strategic Educational Tools. Another great read aloud is The Mission of Addition by Lerner Publications. My students really enjoyed The Good Neighbors Store and Award though!
I generally spend 1-2 days on each strategy. I model the strategy, then we do some work together, then they independently practice the strategy, leading to me quickly assessing them to make sure they got the concept. Many students will find a strategy that makes sense to them, however, I encourage them during these strategy learning days to use the strategy that we are practicing on that day, and then after I introduce each strategy, they can choose how they problem solve from there on out.
So the first strategy we use in adding is using our base ten blocks. Literally everything hands on. We don't even write. I write the equation, and then I have them focus strictly on building using their manipulatives (base ten blocks) and then counting their tens and counting their ones ones, and putting it together. This is more of a concrete way for the students to solve, so many of them can pick up on this almost immediately. When I feel that they are ready, I then have them use their whiteboards and I have them draw sticks and dots (tens and ones) to take the place of the base ten blocks. We then spend the next day talking about what to do when we add our ones and they make more than 10 (regrouping).
The next strategy, because frankly to me they are doing this strategy with adding with base ten blocks, is expanded form. I follow the same kind of direct instruction, I model, we do some together, with them working on their whiteboard, and also some shared solving (on the front whiteboard, a student comes up and solves), and then I have them independently solve some. This strategy also makes sense to them if they have grasped adding with base ten blocks. If they haven't grasped place value and don't have a strong number sense, they will struggle with expanded form. I suggest still introducing this strategy to them, but encourage them to build with base ten blocks and writing the value underneath---also pulling them into small groups to reteach place value and value of digits within numbers. After they've grasped adding with expanded form without regrouping, we then do some work with regrouping as well.
I use number bonds from the beginning of the year. The thought behind using number bonds, supports many of the math practices--such MP2--thinking about numbers in multiple ways. From the beginning of the school year, I try to teach my students to think of numbers flexibly. Using this strategy of adding with number bonds is very abstract, even to many of my students who have used number bonds from the beginning of the school year. The purpose of using the number bonds is to think flexibly, so it's easier to add. Getting to that 'friendly' number (30 or 60 or 80) and then just adding the leftovers. Out of my two classes of 47 students, about 5-6 prefer this method of solving. I see it as my job to introduce the students to all these strategies and then choose what works best for them, so if just 1 students prefers this strategy and it makes sense to them, then my job is done.
I do not spend much time at all on teaching the standard algorithm. In fact, I just show the students how to solve and I say, "This is probably the way your parents, and most old people, solve addition and subtraction problems." The kids always find that hilarious and laugh about it--I tell them I'm old too and that's how I learned to add and subtract by solving algorithms, but I also tell them I didn't understand and have a good number sense. I again hit the point that numbers are flexible and if you can see numbers flexibly you can solve any problems!
Interested in the posters from this blogpost and the practice pages, exit tickets, and assessments? Click HERE to snatch these up!
If you have any different ideas for teaching addition, leave in the comments below!
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