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Addition Facts

Quick and accurate recall of the addition facts (from 0 + 0 to 10 + 10) is a crucial skill that is the foundation of all of the other operations (subtraction, multiplication, division). When students master these facts, all other calculations become easier to do. By the end of grade 3, these facts should be automatic for students, and they should be able to use them to do other calculations (like addition and subtraction of larger numbers, in particular).

In class we work on learning 3 basic strategies that can be used mentally to solve the addition facts. Students should be able to choose the strategy that works best for them and the fact they are trying to solve. The strategies taught are meant to teach students how numbers work together and how they can be manipulated to make calculations easier to do in your head. Frequent practice with using the strategies will help students commit the facts to memory. Eventually, students should just remember the facts and only use the strategy as backup.

These strategies are suggested starting places. Students are encouraged to use whatever strategy works for them, and sometimes they have ideas that work even better than the strategies listed below.

Strategy #1 - Counting On

This strategy involves starting at one number, and counting on a number of steps. This is the same idea as counting on your fingers. For 5 + 3, for instance, you would start at 5, and then count on 3 steps: 6, 7, 8 - so 5 + 3 = 8

Kids should get in the habit of taking the greater of the numbers being added as the starting place, and then counting on the lesser number. That makes the strategy more efficient. The trickiest part of this strategy is remembering not to count the number you start on. Kids need to think as if the numbers are on a line painted on the floor. They are standing on the starting number and need to take a number of steps away from the start.

This strategy works best for addition facts where just 1 or 2 (or maybe 3) is being added to a number. When the number of steps that needs to be taken increases, this strategy becomes less efficient.

Strategy #2 - Using the Doubles

Doubles facts are the ones where a number is added to itself. Getting those 10 facts firmly planted in your mind opens up other efficient ways to add. We practice these facts a lot in order for them to become automatic.

When the doubles facts are solid and automatic for kids, they can recognize and use them to quickly and easily solve other facts. For example, when adding 3 + 4, kids might recognize that this is the same as 3 + 3 + 1. If they know 3 + 3 = 6, then they can easily solve 3 + 4 = 7. Similarly, they might think about it as 4 + 4 - 1. Either way, knowing the doubles and how to manipulate numbers can make this an efficient strategy.

This strategy works best for addition facts where the two numbers being added are just one or two apart (like 5 + 6, or 7 + 9).

Strategy #3 - Make 10

We know from our work with number sense that adding an amount to 10 is easy to do in our heads. The simple strategy when adding 10 is to add 1 to the 10s place. When working with a single digit number, that means turn the number into a teen. 6 + 10 = 16.

We can use this to help us quickly solve many of the other addition facts. If we can manipulate the numbers so one of them is 10, the solution becomes an easy one. For example, let's think about 6 + 9. We can take 1 from the 6 and put it with the 9 without changing the result of the addition. When we do that, we have 5 + 10, and we can easily do that in our head. 5 + 10 = 15.

This strategy works best when one of the numbers being added is a 7, 8, or 9.

Important Skill - Compatible Numbers

Our entire number system is based upon putting things into groups of 10. Automatically knowing the numbers that go together to make 10 is an important skill that will make mental addition of larger numbers simpler (for instance: adding 43 + 17 is easier to do in your head if you automatically know that 3 + 7 = 10).

Students should know the pairs that make 10: 9 and 1, 8 and 2, 7 and 3, 6 and 4, 5 and 5.

Helping at Home

There are many ways to practice the addition facts at home. You can:

Get flash cards and play games like memory, or go fish.
Play board games that require rolling 2 dice - the dice usually only go up to 6, but it can be fun practice of those facts.
Play War - use a regular deck of playing cards (remove the face cards, Ace is 1) and deal the entire deck to the players. At the same time players flip the top card from their pile. The first to add the two numbers and say the answer gets to keep both cards. If the answer is said at the same time, a war is started! Players keep flipping cards and saying answers until someone gets the answer quicker. That player gets all the flipped cards. The player with the most cards at the end wins.
Have your child help around the house or at the grocery store when numbers need to be added.
As you are driving or walking around the neighbourhood, look for items in sets and add them together (or look specifically for doubles - 4 tires on a car, 8 windows on the front of a house, etc.)
When your child is helping out, ask for numbers of things using addition facts instead of numbers (like: "Can you get me 4 + 3 eggs, please?").
There are many good addition practice games online (https://www.mathplayground.com/ is good).

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