I posted briefly in my Five for Friday about our addition strategies that my second graders have been using, but I had to share more. Most of my kids have basic knowledge of the standard algorithm because of old math programs, etc. Yet, they really don’t understand addition. They have no idea why they’re carrying a ten, they don’t know when it’s a ten or a hundred, etc. Same thing I did when I was in school. Well with Investigations and with my background with Cognitively Guided Instruction among other things, we’ve been working on using different strategies so kids really “get” why they’re adding.
Here’s our anchor chart we created to show our strategies…
On Friday, we completed some story problems because I wanted to show parents at our conferences on Monday how many different strategies there are and how the kids are really understanding their math. The kids did amazing! I’m so proud of how they have taken to these strategies. When we practice addition on our white boards with the strategies, the kids actually groan when it’s time to clean up and beg me to do it every day lol. I love to see them so excited about math.
Here are some of their strategies they’ve been using….
Place Value Model
Empty Number Line
Break Apart
Expanded Notation
Hope everyone is having a great weekend!
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