More Mental Math Strategies...

    

We are learning more addition and subtraction mental math strategies!! We have been reviewing the 16 we have learned up until this week! We had sent home a package including all of these previously, but also posted below for reference. Please use these at home to help with our math work that comes home and to practice these strategies when you get a chance to build our skills of our math facts! 

'Seeing' these strategies in number sentences (equations) show students understand the concepts of addition and subtraction with all the daily practice we do with this concept. Number sentences are very abstract but we have been learning what they mean all school year. The important part here is that these strategies are little 'tricks' to help us quickly solve addition and subtraction problems with smaller numbers. They are to be mental math and while the strategies are becoming more complex, we do want to be able to see them, name them and use them with efficiently rather than using materials. These strategies can also be applied to larger numbers and that will be built on in the next school year as the expectations do build on previous year's learning. 

These next strategies are focusing more on Grade 2 Mental Math! And while students in Grade 1 are being exposed to these strategies, they are able to use count on or count back as more practice rather than applying mentally these particular strategies. Grade 1's will focus on reviewing and practicing more of the previous strategies to solidify their understanding. 

This week we have been introduction on a new addition strategy called Ten More. When we add 10 to any number, we 'jump' to the next, larger, decade or group of ten. We are only changing the tens in a number and the ones remain the same. We have been practicing skip counting forward by 10's but this will be newer as we are starting on ANY number and jumping to the next ten and applying these skills mantally, with numbers that are larger.  

Next week, we will focus on another new subtraction strategy called Ten Less. When 10 is subtracted from any number, we are jumping back to lower group of tens. We are only changing the tens in a number and the ones remain the same. We have been practicing skip counting backward by 10's but this will be newer as we are starting on ANY number and jumping to the lower ten and applying these skills mantally, with numbers that are larger. 

We continue to focus on one strategy per week but sometimes we spend two weeks if we need some extra time with learning these new concepts. Then we will review all strategies on Thursday and then on Fridays we will have our 5 question quiz to see how we are doing as we continue to learn and apply these strategies.

We are becoming mental math whizzes!!