This cluster includes the following access points.
Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this topic.
| Name |
Description |
| Aquarium Addition: | In this lesson, the students' learning is focused on using real world word problems to solve adding to problems with the result unknown. The students will be focusing on using manipulatives to create drawings to help them solve these problems. Furthermore, the students will be required to write the mathematical equations they used to solve the problem. |
| An Amazing Sunny Day Story- Ways to Make 10: | In this lesson, students are shown a picture of a beach scene. They are asked to identify groups of ten within the picture. There are three pre-determined groups of ten with noticeable parts (people, starfish, coconuts). Using the picture, students will identify a group of ten, create an addition equation for the parts, and transfer the equation into sentences to tell the story. |
| Pete's Groovy Button Problems: | This lesson uses a familiar character, Pete the Cat, that proposes a comparison problem for students to explore. |
| Fill It Up - Piñatas!: | This MEA focuses on students' problem solving skills. After reading a story about what is in a piñata, students are asked to help a company find the best way to fill a piñata. It focuses on math skills, including counting and adding three numbers to make 20. 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. |
| Addition Stories at the Food Store: | In this lesson, students will solve addition whole number word problems (within 20) with real-world scenarios by using manipulatives, drawings, or equations. |
| Three's a Charm: 3-Number Addition: | In this lesson, students will use properties of operations to solve word problems that will require them to add 3 whole numbers whose sum is less than or equal to 20. |
| Cookie Subtraction: | In this lesson, the teacher shares the book, "Mmm... Cookie Simple Subtraction". The students follow along by representing the problems in the book with cookie manipulatives and recording the equations for each problem. The lesson incorporates a variety of subtraction problem types. |
| Pizza Party Planners: | In the story Curious George and the Pizza Party (by Rey, H.A., and Margret Rey), Curious George attends a pizza party for a friend. Now the man with the yellow hat wants to plan his own pizza party for Curious George, but he needs the students' help. Help the man with the yellow hat use the data about the different pizza companies in his area to rank the options from best to worst, considering the toppings offered, crust options, prices, and customer satisfaction ratings. Then the students will use the special promotions from each pizza company and their math skills to figure out which pizza place offers the best deals. Each team of students will write letters to the man with the yellow hat explaining how they ranked the companies and why they chose their rankings to help him choose the best pizza for George's party. 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. |
| Quilt Squares: | Students will use pattern blocks to create a quilt square for the Quick Quilters Society. They will have to consider information on a data chart to help them create their squares. They will have to add up the cost to make their square, too. 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. |
| Making 11: | In this lesson students use manipulatives to discover how to build the number 11. This lesson is great for novice teachers or for teachers who have changed to 1st grade. |
| Word Problem Lesson: | In this lesson, students will be able to solve "compare" word problems. |
| Solving Word Problems Using Story Structure: | In this lesson, students will learn how to use their knowledge of beginning, middle, and end to solve word problems that include result unknown, change unknown, and start unknown. They will learn how to use a modified story map to write an equation to represent the problem. |
| Mission: Addition – Adding 3 Numbers: | This activity introduces and provides practice for adding three whole numbers and includes three center activities for independent practice. |
| Out of Sight Missing Addends: | Students will learn how to use manipulatives to solve missing addends in math problems. |
| Name |
Description |
| Finding a Chair: | These problems explicitly describe one-to-one correspondences without using comparison language. Such problems are easier for students to solve than problems that use comparison language such as "How many more?" or "How many fewer." |
| Field Day Scarcity: | The purpose of this task is for students to relate addition and subtraction problems to money in a context that introduces the concept of scarcity. Scarcity occurs when you want or need more than you can have. Students may want to buy everything but will discover that it not possible with only $7 and they will have to make decisions. |
| Daisies in vases: | This instructional task asks students to consider all the decompositions of a number into two addends. Because first grade students may have trouble reading this task even thought they are intellectual capable of working on this problem, it will help if the teacher reads the prompt to the students and then has them work together in pairs or small groups. |
| Boys and Girls, Variation 2: | This task represents the Put Together/Take Apart with both addends unknown context for addition and subtraction. Once a student finds one correct answer, he/she can be encouraged to find another. Ask the student to use objects, pictures, or equations to represent each answer. |
| Boys and Girls, Variation 1: | Students may use either addition or subtraction to solve these types of word problems, with addition related to the action of putting together and subtraction related to the action of taking apart. Depending on how students think about these word problems, either is appropriate for the "addend unknown" problems. Seeing it both ways emphasizes the relationship between addition and subtraction. |
| At the Park: | This task includes three different problem types using the "Add To" context with a discrete quantity. |
| Maria’s Marbles: | Students benefit from encountering one problem type limited to small numbers and to develop strategies for that type of problem before encountering mixed sets of problems and larger numbers that distract the student from the problem itself. Over time they will be able to distinguish between types of problems in mixed sets and apply the appropriate strategy to solve each. |
| Measuring Blocks: | In this task, students work in pairs to measure a block using paperclips. |
| The Pet Snake: | The purpose of this task is for students to gain a better understanding of measurements with the example being the growth of a pet snake. |
| School Supplies: | This task could be used for either instructional or assessment purposes, depending on where students are in their understanding of addition and how the teacher supports them. The solution shown is very terse; students' solution strategies are likely to be much more varied. |
| Sharing Markers: | These task types represent the Take From contexts for addition and subtraction. This task includes the three different problem types using the Take From context: result unknown, change unknown, and start unknown. Students need experience and practice with all three types. |
Vetted resources students can use to learn the concepts and skills in this topic.
| Title |
Description |
| Finding a Chair: | These problems explicitly describe one-to-one correspondences without using comparison language. Such problems are easier for students to solve than problems that use comparison language such as "How many more?" or "How many fewer." |
| Daisies in vases: | This instructional task asks students to consider all the decompositions of a number into two addends. Because first grade students may have trouble reading this task even thought they are intellectual capable of working on this problem, it will help if the teacher reads the prompt to the students and then has them work together in pairs or small groups. |
| Boys and Girls, Variation 2: | This task represents the Put Together/Take Apart with both addends unknown context for addition and subtraction. Once a student finds one correct answer, he/she can be encouraged to find another. Ask the student to use objects, pictures, or equations to represent each answer. |
| Boys and Girls, Variation 1: | Students may use either addition or subtraction to solve these types of word problems, with addition related to the action of putting together and subtraction related to the action of taking apart. Depending on how students think about these word problems, either is appropriate for the "addend unknown" problems. Seeing it both ways emphasizes the relationship between addition and subtraction. |
| At the Park: | This task includes three different problem types using the "Add To" context with a discrete quantity. |
| Maria’s Marbles: | Students benefit from encountering one problem type limited to small numbers and to develop strategies for that type of problem before encountering mixed sets of problems and larger numbers that distract the student from the problem itself. Over time they will be able to distinguish between types of problems in mixed sets and apply the appropriate strategy to solve each. |
| The Pet Snake: | The purpose of this task is for students to gain a better understanding of measurements with the example being the growth of a pet snake. |
| School Supplies: | This task could be used for either instructional or assessment purposes, depending on where students are in their understanding of addition and how the teacher supports them. The solution shown is very terse; students' solution strategies are likely to be much more varied. |
| Sharing Markers: | These task types represent the Take From contexts for addition and subtraction. This task includes the three different problem types using the Take From context: result unknown, change unknown, and start unknown. Students need experience and practice with all three types. |
Vetted resources caregivers can use to help students learn the concepts and skills in this topic.
| Title |
Description |
| Finding a Chair: | These problems explicitly describe one-to-one correspondences without using comparison language. Such problems are easier for students to solve than problems that use comparison language such as "How many more?" or "How many fewer." |
| Field Day Scarcity: | The purpose of this task is for students to relate addition and subtraction problems to money in a context that introduces the concept of scarcity. Scarcity occurs when you want or need more than you can have. Students may want to buy everything but will discover that it not possible with only $7 and they will have to make decisions. |
| Daisies in vases: | This instructional task asks students to consider all the decompositions of a number into two addends. Because first grade students may have trouble reading this task even thought they are intellectual capable of working on this problem, it will help if the teacher reads the prompt to the students and then has them work together in pairs or small groups. |
| Boys and Girls, Variation 2: | This task represents the Put Together/Take Apart with both addends unknown context for addition and subtraction. Once a student finds one correct answer, he/she can be encouraged to find another. Ask the student to use objects, pictures, or equations to represent each answer. |
| Boys and Girls, Variation 1: | Students may use either addition or subtraction to solve these types of word problems, with addition related to the action of putting together and subtraction related to the action of taking apart. Depending on how students think about these word problems, either is appropriate for the "addend unknown" problems. Seeing it both ways emphasizes the relationship between addition and subtraction. |
| At the Park: | This task includes three different problem types using the "Add To" context with a discrete quantity. |
| Maria’s Marbles: | Students benefit from encountering one problem type limited to small numbers and to develop strategies for that type of problem before encountering mixed sets of problems and larger numbers that distract the student from the problem itself. Over time they will be able to distinguish between types of problems in mixed sets and apply the appropriate strategy to solve each. |
| Measuring Blocks: | In this task, students work in pairs to measure a block using paperclips. |
| The Pet Snake: | The purpose of this task is for students to gain a better understanding of measurements with the example being the growth of a pet snake. |
| School Supplies: | This task could be used for either instructional or assessment purposes, depending on where students are in their understanding of addition and how the teacher supports them. The solution shown is very terse; students' solution strategies are likely to be much more varied. |
| Sharing Markers: | These task types represent the Take From contexts for addition and subtraction. This task includes the three different problem types using the Take From context: result unknown, change unknown, and start unknown. Students need experience and practice with all three types. |
