This weekend, my granddaughter visited for a long overnight stay. She reminds me she is now six years old, and will be in 1st grade in the next school year. We had not done any * "formal" math work in a few months. So, I told her I wanted to do some number work with her. What a happy surprise for me when she pulled out her pack of addition and subtraction cards.
*We always do some form of math. I often ask her some math questions such as, "Do you want 2+3 grapes or 7+4 grapes?" Or, during rides in the car, I give her simple multiplication to solve. "If there are 3 girls, and they stick their arms out, how many arms will you see?"
If you have read my previous posts, you saw I explained how to help children learn math facts using my Math Facts Program.
Then she wrote a math fact out for me: 87 + 5. Well, I had intended to introduce some addition with 2 place numbers, so this was a perfect way to help her learn how to get the answer.
We did a few more of these simple problems using the Unifix cubes. Then I gave her a paper with four more problems which she answered without using the Unifix cubes. One of those problems did NOT need any regrouping. I don't want children to learn how to do regroup and think they always need to regroup. She handled it!
If you do not have this type of Unifix tray, you can make your own. See my post from October 12, 2020: Teaching Addition and Place Value. If you would like more information on how to teach addition and subtraction and place value, this workbook, Beyond Math Facts, is the one to choose. It can be used along with Two Plus Two Is Not Five. As children are learning new facts, they can do more advanced adding and subtracting in this book.
