Lovin on Maths (Pt 4): Adding with Number Sense

Whether you’re actually loving math or not, it’s a really good statement to put in your back pocket: I LOVE MATH/S. Take it out, and say it in front of yourself, then in front of your friends. It’ll start to feel normal- and we can start a movement.

I love math, and I am good at it. And, what’s more, I am getting even better at math. Just keep it on repeat.

Okay- Ten Frames are so much fun- but it is nice to know the next step.

Give yourself a pep talk, and we will see where all this mastery and lovin on ten can take us.

Number Sense Addition

Putting that Love of Ten to Work

Now that we have a variety of ways to see ten, and see parts of ten, we are going to use those parts to make addition easier.

We are going to agree to always look for ten because:

1. We work in a base 10 number system.
2. It makes life easier.
3. It’s just so pretty.

So, in single digit addition, this is what we are talking about:

We see the 8. We know (from visualizing ten frames), that the 8 really wants a 2.

We take 2 from the 6, and have 4 left over- breaking the 6 into a 2 and a 4.

We now have 10 and 4 more. SOOOO nice… 14.

Here’s another one:

The 9 wants 1 to make it to 10.

We take the second 9 and break it into 1 and 8.

We have a 10 and 8 more- so easy to work with… 18.

A few more that you can see yourself through, then we will see what happens with more place values (next week).

These are really fun to play with, just to twist your brain into some new directions.

I recommend:

1. Keep the numbers written horizontally for a while. As we move to greater place values, it keeps the focus on PLACE VALUE rather than some arbitrary lining up of numbers. (Lining up becomes more problematic and complicated as we work in decimals. Focus on place value language.)
2. Practice these with students. It actually is fun- and it reinforces the love of 10 and love of maths.
3. Notice that we can break up the first or second number totally based on preference and how it makes sense to you.
4. Throwing in a few that don’t get to 10- and a few with 0. 0 is a beautiful, powerful number. 0 is NOT nothing.
5. Resources for loads of practice so you don’t have to write your own:
   • Math Drills.com– loads of practice
   • Make your own on Math Aids.com
   • If you want to play with vertical examples from Dad’s Worksheets.com

No matter what age or level of math experience, try this out as a brain exercise. Use Math Drills.com or Math Aids.com to do lots of them. Retrain your brain. It’s fun- I swear!