#  >> K-12 >> Elementary School

Games to Teach Addition & Subtraction

Teaching math to children starts with the concepts of addition and subtraction. These concepts can be difficult for students to grasp. Creativity and imagination in lesson planning can lead to productive games for comprehension. Allowing students to play hands-on games for understanding addition and subtraction can help them understand the processes.
  1. Dice Game

    • Pair students up and give each group two dice. Have one partner roll the first die and then the second partner can roll the other. They will record the two numbers they have rolled and add them together. Have the students work together for the class period playing the game and practicing their addition skills.

    Counting with Chocolate Chips

    • Buy a bag of chocolate chip cookies and pass one out to every student. Have children pick the chocolate chips out of the cookies. At the front of the classroom, write addition and subtraction problems on the board and have the students solve the problems with their chips. Make sure that you have a few extra chips on hand in case some cookies do not have many.

    Calendar Days

    • Give students a page from a calendar you have cut apart or make copies of a page with the copy machine. Pass out a cotton balls, buttons, raisins or other small objects for the students to use as markers. Instruct students to place their marker on a specific day, such as the fourth. Then make up a math problem by adding or subtracting days to get an answer. For example, students begin on the fourth and you tell them to add 2. This would bring them to the sixth or 4 + 2 = 6. Then they can continue on the sum and proceed to subtract an amount. The object is for everyone in the class to end up on the same day. This will mean the addition and subtraction was performed correctly.

    School Store

    • Create a school store within the classroom. Stock the store with real items or pieces of paper that represent real items. For example, pencils or a paper cut out of a pencil. Price the items with a simple number, most likely a single digit. Give the students fake coins to come to the store and purchase items with. They will need to add the amounts of the items to purchase and subtract their total from the amount of money they have. You could price pencils at 3 cents, erasers at 2 cents and glue sticks at 4 cents. If a student has 10 cents and wants to purchase one of each of these items, they would need to add 3 + 2 + 4 = 9 and subtract this sum from their 10 cents.

Learnify Hub © www.0685.com All Rights Reserved