Developing concepts, modeling, and solving problems form the core of essential learning about addition and subtraction. That educators may make the task more difficult than necessary is the thrust of several recent studies. Highlights from these studies (with suggestions for instruction) are presented. (JN)

This document plus diskette product provides nine interactive puzzles and games that both teach and provide practice with simple addition and subtraction concepts. The activities address these skills through carrying in addition and regrouping in subtraction. The activities address cognitive skills such as problem solving, planning, visual pattern…

Discusses ways of teaching integers to children who have a wide range of ability. The strategies involve not only the "right" answer but also such considerations as learning the meaning behind the operators, relating operations with integers to real-world situations, and finding a variety of ways to solve the problems. (JN)

"Math Facts Memory Made Easy" is a program which provides teachers with an effective alternative instructional method and an accompanying curriculum designed to improve students' ability to memorize basic mathematical facts. General information about the program and examples of strategies used are presented. (JN)

First-grade children mastered 72 of 100 addition facts by the middle of the grade, with mastery being defined as a two-second response to a given addition fact. A sequence of activities is presented that serves as an outline of the approach taken. (JN)

Investigated use of the bus context (boarding/leaving a bus) for introducing addition and subtraction in the first grade, as well as other contexts. Indicates that these contexts influence the use of numbers and operations and that they be taught separately before comparisons are made. Also outlines misconceptions related to bus-numbers. (JN)

This paper proposes a semantic analysis in which meanings of word problems are structures that include class and order relations, and suggests a hypothesis of developmental levels that can account for children's performance of these problems at various ages. The different kinds of problems vary in the complexity of semantic structures and the…

Presents activities involving the addition of antinumbers (which uses novel numerical characters); a puzzle which combines practice in working with polynomials and solving simple equations with intriguing facts about turkets; and searching for the number of different right triangles in a given square grid (which helps develop spatial…

Fourth-grade students in Title I mathematics took 40-problem tests to determine types of persistent errors made in addition and subtraction. Tests, administered to 117 students (addition) and 104 students (subtraction), were analyzed for basic fact, random, or procedural errors. Findings are reported and discussed, and recommendations for…

A card game is described which gives students practice with adding integers and which also develops the concept of "opposite." (DT)

Young children benefit from activities that involve various partitions of numbers, especially the number 10. Presented are two activities that require students partition and recombine numbers to solve problems in a gamelike situations. Examples and worksheets are provided. (MDH)

Recent research has provided a reasonably coherent picture of how children learn to add and subtract. There is clear evidence that children do not learn simply by mastering a procedure and storing in memory. Instead, learning is structured in meaningful ways, connected to previous knowledge, and adapted to new contexts. This view of learning has…

Provides four pages of practice problems covering the skills of multiplication, addition, and subtraction. Follows the premise that many arithmetic operations be done in working toward a solution. The sheets could be photocopied as worksheets or handouts. (JM)

An activity is presented which uses the automobile odometer as a means of strengthening pupils' understanding of the addition algorithm with particular emphasis on the concepts of place value and renaming. Directions for three classroom games to be used as supplemental activities also are included. (DT)

The use of pictures in the early instruction of doubles in basic addition is promoted. The process used in the Illinois University Mathematics Learning Clinic is detailed. Doubles are seen to be among the easy facts that children are capable of learning first. (MP)