Cluster 1: Understand addition as putting together and adding to, and understand subtraction as taking apart and taking from. (Major Cluster) Archived

Help George make museum displays by picking the number of items that need be added to make 10.

Type: Educational Game

Students are asked to find all possible pairs of numbers that sum to six in the context of a word problem.

Type: Formative Assessment

Students are asked to find all possible pairs of numbers that sum to nine in the context of a word problem.

Type: Formative Assessment

Students solve an Add To (Result Unknown) word problem.

Type: Formative Assessment

Students are challenged to find all the different ways to sort six toys into two different groups.

Type: Formative Assessment

Students are asked to orally provide answers to a mixed probe of addition and subtraction (within five) problems.

Type: Formative Assessment

Students are asked to orally provide answers to a mixed probe of addition and subtraction (within five) problems that focus on adding one and subtracting one.

Type: Formative Assessment

Students use manipulatives to decompose six in more than one way.

Type: Formative Assessment

Students use ten frames to find the missing number to make ten.

Type: Formative Assessment

Students use ten frame cards to play a memory game in which they find pairs that make 10.

Type: Formative Assessment

Students are asked to orally provide answers to addition (within five) problems.

Type: Formative Assessment

Students are asked to pick an equation that matches addition and subtraction word problems.

Type: Formative Assessment

Students model an addition and a subtraction problem with manipulatives, drawings, fingers, or by acting out the story in the problem.

Type: Formative Assessment

Students solve an addition and a subtraction word problem using manipulatives or pencil and paper.

Type: Formative Assessment

Students model an addition problem using manipulatives, their fingers, drawings, or by acting out.

Type: Formative Assessment

Students are asked to orally provide answers to subtraction (within five) problems.

Type: Formative Assessment

Students count how many rectangles are in a row, draw more rectangles to make 10 rectangles in each row, and write the numeral corresponding to the number of additional rectangles drawn.

Type: Formative Assessment

Students are given a subtraction word problem and asked to solve the problem by drawing a picture or using manipulatives.

Type: Formative Assessment

Students model the action in a subtraction problem.

Type: Formative Assessment

Students are asked to solve an addition word problem by drawing a picture or using manipulatives.

Type: Formative Assessment

Students are asked to solve a problem in which they have to compose 10.

Type: Formative Assessment

This video show a teacher using a variety of tools and software programs to help the students have a better understanding of math. By incorporating technology in the classroom, the teacher can spend time with students who struggle to understand the concept while others can continue to pass levels in the games to move on to the next concept.

Type: Instructional Technique

Students will enjoy engaging in this lively lesson where they will have the opportunity to sing and act out addition and subtraction story problems. Students will be guided through addition and subtraction word problems as they use manipulatives to model the problems.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will play a fun game using paper cups and counters to "roll" out combinations to make a ten.

Type: Lesson Plan

Go Fish is a really fun and interactive way to teach kindergartners about the number pairs that equal ten. This hands-on lesson will give students the engaging practice that they need to not only build number bonds to ten but also to find the missing addend and count up to ten. Students will love the Go Fish game and want to play it over and over again!

Type: Lesson Plan

Uh...oh... Some rubber duckies have gone missing. In this fun and interactive lesson, students create groups of 10 using ten-frames and small rubber duck cut-outs. When given a number from 1-9, the students will find the number that makes 10 when added to the given number using a ten-frame and rubber duck cut-outs. The students will also explain how to combine two numbers to create a group of 10.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will be using counters and ten frames to make a "ten fish dinner" for a hungry penguin named Perry. Perry likes his dinner to have two types of fish, red and yellow, and he always has to have ten fish when he eats.
Students will practice making combinations of ten by beginning with a number of red fish and working to find how many yellow fish are needed to make a whole dinner of ten fish. After practicing with counters and ten frames, students will record one "dinner" (combination of ten) by drawing counters on a ten frame and/or writing an equation to represent their combination.

Type: Lesson Plan

This activity will show students how exciting it can be to find groups of ten. The students must be able to recognize the number that is given as the first addend. They must then be able to work, using counters and a ten frame, toward creating another group that they can add to the first group to total one group of ten. They will work first with a partner using counters and during the assessment they would be expected to work on their own. Their completion of the assessment would show just how much of the skill they have or have not mastered.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will solve real-world addition and subtraction problems (0-5) using various strategies.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, the students will create and write equations for all of the ways to make ten on a ten-frame.

Type: Lesson Plan

This activity deepens the students' understanding of addition and recording addition sentences by using an engaging story about ducks in a pond.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will use their fingers and manipulatives to help solve simple addition problems within 5.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will use manipulatives and equations to represent and solve addition and subtraction word problems.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will solve addition and subtraction word problems within 10 related to a garden theme.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will help the teacher organize seashells on two shelves. Students will represent the number ten as the sum of two numbers and then create an addition sentence to match their "shelves of seashells." Students will also be asked to create all the ways to make ten.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson can be used during Dr. Seuss'; birthday to practice different ways to decompose the number 10.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students sing a song that provides practice problems in adding and subtracting. Students will use heart cut outs to model the story. Students will be encouraged to use drawings and record an equation to represent the story.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will understand and create the sums of ten using whole numbers from 0 - 10. Students will engage in fun art activities.

Type: Lesson Plan

Eating cereal may be fun, but counting out with it can be more fun! Hungry for a great time? Students will learn to count out 1-10 using cereal and help some mice escape from a hungry snake.

Type: Lesson Plan

The students will use M&M's to find the number that makes 10, for any number from 1 to 9, when added to the given number. Students will record the answer as both a drawing and an equation.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students learn to solve addition word problems within 10 using the engaging book by Jill Anderson Adding with Sebastian Pig and Friends At the Circus. This is the first in a series of four lessons on adding and subtracting within 10.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students learn to solve addition equations that have a missing addend within 10.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will use manipulatives and equations to model and solve subtraction equations.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students learn to solve part-part-whole addition word problems within 10. The book Adding It Up by Rosemary Wells will be used to introduce the lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will use Cheerios as manipulatives for decomposing numbers 5-10. Students will be encouraged to decompose numbers in as many different ways as possible. Students will also record their decompositions as addition equations.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will use manipulatives and equations to model bringing together two smaller groups to make one large group. This is part one of a two part series. Part 2 is titled "All Together Now- or NOT" (Resource 49796).

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson explores ways to represent 10. The students will use two sided counters to investigate the ways that 10 can be broken apart and put back together. The students will also work in pairs to collaborate and expand their understanding of the concept.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students learn to solve subtraction word problems within 10. The book, Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons will be used to engage students.

Type: Lesson Plan

This activity will have students finding ways to make ten. Students use two colors of linking cubes to make and record equations of ten.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will use two-sided colored counters (discs) to decompose the number ten.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will use number bracelets to practice representing numbers less than or equal to ten as a sum of two numbers. They will manipulate beads to find all possible combinations of making one number. This lesson required students to work with partners.

Type: Lesson Plan

This activity practices taking one away from a number to compose an equation.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore decompositions of ten and equality using linking cubes and number balances.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this activity students will recite the Five Little Ducks poem to decompose numbers using manipulatives and equations to represent the math.

Type: Lesson Plan

The students will partner up and use Fruit Loops to represent addition equations with sums up to 10. They will draw, act out, use verbal explanations and write equations to show addition.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will identify the number of linking cubes hidden when the total set is 10 and only some cubes are displayed.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will explore the way fireflies are grouped in the text Ten Flashing Fireflies by Philomen Sturges. Students will represent all of the ways fireflies can be grouped so that some are in a jar and some are left to fly in the night sky.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will work with subtraction within 10 by taking 1 away from a number.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will act out situations as an introduction to story problems. Students will also have the opportunity to solve addition story problems using manipulatives.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students are presented with a problem that requires them to add crayons to a partially filled box to make a ten. Students use ten frames and dot stickers of two colors to represent the problem situation and solve.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this MEA, the class receives a letter from the principal informing them they will be getting a class pet. They need to determine which pet to pick based on the data.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will solve addition and subtraction word problems using Goldfish crackers. Students will also work with a partner to create and solve their own addition and subtraction word problems.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will use a die to generate a number. Then, students will find the number that makes 10 when added to the given number.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will use crackers to decompose numbers and create equations.

Type: Lesson Plan

Help Farmer Betsy! You'll use multiple strategies to make a ten and write equations in this interactive tutorial. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

This tutorial will help teachers identify the action in story problems as joining or separating, as well as the direct modeling and counting strategies used by your students to think about and solve them.

Type: Professional Development

This article proposes a structured set of lively, brief, daily exercises designed to help children master number facts and mental math skills. Each day's practice focuses on a small, highly focused, manageable, and strategically selected set of facts or skills that builds directly on the previous days' learning. Related resources (Practice and videos) are cataloged separately.

Type: Teaching Idea

This interactive Flash applet supports the exploration of numbers to 100 by simulating a 100-bead string. A teacher or child can move all or some beads to the left or right to add and subtract. The controls allow users to move beads individually or 10 at a time to model different counting and calculation strategies. Users can hide or show the numbers represented by the beads. This applet lends itself well to use on an interactive white board. A PDF guide to this collection of teaching applets is cataloged separately.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This applet contains four games (How Many?, Build, Fill, and Add) that utilize a frame with five slots for students to place objects, which helps students develop counting and addition skills.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This applet contains four games (How Many?, Build, Fill, and Add) that utilize a frame with ten slots for students to place objects, which helps students develop counting and addition skills.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This site features an interactive game to help students develop number sense and fluency with addition and subtraction facts to 10. Okta the octopus hides some bubbles under a shell, and then either adds more bubbles or takes some away. Students have to determine how many bubbles are left under the shell. The number of bubbles Okta works with can be set to a desired number or the student can select random draw. This allows for focus with a preferred number if desired by the teacher or student.

Type: Virtual Manipulative