Addition Strategies

Is it Sunday evening already? Maybe I am in some sort of denial. But I really feel like this weekend should be at least one more day. Regardless…

Lately, my math instruction seems to be lacking some excitement. We have been mired in the bog of fractions and it seemed like we needed a little pick me up. I thought it might be helpful to review some skills and concepts in math centers last week, so we broke out this activity to practice addition strategies!

First, we used a simple problem to review how to write a number story. Or word problem. Or story problem. Whatever you want to call it. We discussed getting a visual picture of the problem, and then practiced writing one together. As a class, we even reviewed what would constitute a proper number story.

Then, I showed them how to use the graphic organizer that would be a part of the center. They got to choose a card, and then use that problem to complete the organizer. For each problem, they needed to write the addends with expanded notation, write the number story, word problem, story problem (you get the idea), use partial sums to solve it and then another strategy that works for them.

I put the directions in the center so they had a visual reminder of what to do when they got there.

(Sorry for the terrible iPhone picture quality…)

And then the class had a new center! It was a great way to see what kids remembered about addition, and a great way to assess their understanding of addition in general from their responses to the questions.

I was glad to be able to have a review with my class to see what they have retained about addition. This also helped me to see which students I might need to pull into a group for a little more help.

Does this activity seem like it might be useful in your classroom? If so, you might want to check it out in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I have made a few changes so I think many different grade levels could use it, or if you have students at different levels in your class they can all be successful.

There are 8 sets of cards with addition problems ranging from single digit addition all the way to adding decimals to the hundredths place. There are also 3 different graphic organizers to meet different classroom needs.