Showing posts with label Subtraction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Subtraction. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Awesome Resource: Word Problem Generator

Last week in Boston, I was able to hear Greg Tang speak and it was incredible! I could have listened to him talk about strong math instruction all day. Besides being a great speaker and mathematical thinker, Greg Tang also write children's books about math. If you have not checked them out, I highly recommend them. A few of my favorites...


During his talk, he shared a new free resource on his website. 

With this tool, you can select an operation, problem time, location of the unknown, and the number range. You can either print a list of problems or you can display to project and work on together as a class. Students can also use this independently. There is a hint button that will give them a model to help solve. It is a really awesome tool!





Monday, October 27, 2014

1st Grade: Addition & Subtraction Unit Test

We have been talking a lot about formative assessment this quarter and ways that we can check in with our students at the end of each lesson and the end of each unit.

For unit tests, it is best to group questions by skill and see exactly what students need to work on both to make reteach groups and guide future instruction based on student work. Here is a sample unit assessment for the 1st grade Addition & Subtraction Unit. Make sure that when grading, you pay close attention to the strategies that the students used as this unit is based on teaching strategies for quick addition and subtraction. We want to see students moving away from direct modeling and towards mental math strategies. You can get so much information beyond just correct and incorrect!

Please let me know if you need a copy in word to make edits :)

Have a great Monday!

Thursday, October 16, 2014

2nd Grade: Addition & Subtraction

Like 1st grade, 2nd grade will spend a majority of 2nd quarter working on addition and subtraction. In 1st grade the focus is on developing the concept of addition and subtraction, as well as fact fluency within 20. In 2nd grade, students will be modeling addition and subtraction, and adding up to 4 digit numbers with regrouping!

During Q2, we are going to really focus on 2 digit numbers, both modeling and the traditional algorithm. We will return to addition and subtraction during Q3 to build up the number of digits in the numbers students are working with.
This is a really excellent article to build your own knowledge of column addition and subtraction.

The first step in planning for such a meaty unit is to create a vision of success. What will your students be able to do at the end of the unit. We have the IA, but we want to make sure we are breaking down the skills that students need. We also do not want to wait until the end of the quarter to assess.

Here is a sample unit test for addition and subtraction.

Breaking down addition and subtraction into daily objectives can be a bit challenging. Here is an example of how I broke them down and the sequence that I would teach them.

Students are going to start by wanting to directly model because that strategy was effective with smaller numbers. The goal is to extend this understanding to directly modeling with place value blocks, rather than drawing 84 circles.  Using graphic organizers will help them effectively use the blocks to add and subtract.
Surfin Through Second has some great activities

Once they understand how to add and subtract place value blocks, they are ready to use the algorithm as way to record what they are doing with the blocks.

Once you have your unit level planning done, here are some resources to help with daily planning:

It is important to teach addition and subtraction together so students understand the relationship between them. Adding to check your subtraction is a great strategy to ensure you got the correct answer and to practice addition while working on subtraction. Here is a center that focuses on checking subtraction with addition.

This unit is going to be very heavy on word problems because students rarely use subtraction and addition with context. Resources for teaching problem solving are coming soon.

Here are some great centers and activities, check out Stage E

Mrs. Lemons Blog has some amazing resources for teaching all things 2nd grade, here are some addition and subtraction freebies
Here is a great video modeling how to encourage students to use multiple strategies. With the new TEKS students need to be able to model with pictures and place value blocks, not just the traditional algorithm. 

Brain Pop Jr is always a great way to reinforce these concepts during transitions or down time. Email Amanda if you need the KAPS login :) 

I will continue to hunt for high quality resources and share what I find!

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

1st Grade: Addition and Subtraction

Teaching the basics of addition and subtraction is a huge responsibility for 1st grade teachers. This is where the foundation is laid that they will need to be successful in Math.

With that said, here are some resources to help teach addition and subtraction to 1st graders :)

Here are some great books and articles that have a ton of excellent resources on teaching early addition and subtraction.


Here are a few awesome Math Start read alouds that can be used both as a literacy read aloud and to reinforce the math concepts:
·         Animals on Board (addition)
·         Elevator Magic (subtraction)
·         Mall Mania (addition strategies)

Great resources to use for student work or centers:

*This activity is great for small group or an independent work center. Students use 2 different colored cubes to make different combinations and record the addition sentences. 

*This is a really tricky concept and this video explains it pretty well and has some great visuals of moving 1 over to complete the ten frame. It might be a bit too complicated to show students but it gives great ideas on how to teach it and showing students parts of it with strong models could be really helpful. 

Here are resources divided by topic:

Making Ten
·         Quick blog post about importance of ten: http://mathcoachscorner.blogspot.com/2012/05/importance-of-10.html
·         http://www.accomplishate.com/preschool/printables/make6-10.pdf Page 5 is a great organizer that can be used with 2 different colored unifix cubes to generate number sentences equal to ten

  Using Ten to add 9
·         http://www.brainpopjr.com/math/additionandsubtraction/makingten/preview.weml BrainpopJr video about making 10, could work well  with higher groups, again might go over their heads but has some cool visuals
·         The first few pages could be good homework for this unit https://irieclass.wikispaces.com/file/view/SLeveled+Problem+Solving+and+Homework-Grade+2.pdf 

  Fact Families
·         http://guidedmath.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/teaching-fact-families-in-guided-math-groups/ Progression on teaching concrete to pictoral to abstract (If you scroll down this page there are a TON of great resources
·         I especially like this awesome conceptual lesson http://illuminations.nctm.org/Lesson.aspx?id=329