How can the relationship between addition and subtraction help me to solve problems?
How can I communicate my math thinking?
We have done work with addition and subtraction and practicing a variety of problem solving strategies. This week we are introducing a new type of story problem - comparing situations. Example: Molly drew 7 butterflies. George drew 3 butterflies. How many more butterflies did Molly draw?
As we have worked on story problems we have focused on 3 main questions BEFORE we even begin working with the numbers to solve:
1. What do we know?
2. What else do we know?
3. What is the problem I must solve? (Prompting students to look for the question mark and make sure our answer directly answers that question).
Having this plan of action was helpful today as we started looking at this new type of problem. Many times students want to jump to manipulating the numbers and solving. They are learning to carefully read/listen to the story and making a plan prior to solving. This fits nicely with our Habit #5 work we are doing this week which is "Seek first to understand, then to be understood."
In order to solve these problems we are working with cubes, drawings, and finding the difference (subtracting).
We are also going to be doing work with finding the missing number in a story problem. Example: 5 train cars are on the track. Some more cars join them. Now there are 9 train cars. How many cars joined the first 5 train cars? Our part-part-whole model can be very helpful for these types of problems.
Students will take their second math fact assessment early next week so I can share that data with you at conferences.
At home continue working on fact fluency! I will be sending home a packet at conferences of some games you can play with your child at home to help make these facts more automatic.
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