Loved That Lesson: Subtraction Fun!

Don't you just love when you think of an idea for a lesson totally a whim and then your students end up totally getting into it?  I do!  That is what happened this week.

Let me explain:  We have been learning about addition and subtraction for a little while, but my students really struggle with using a part, part, whole mat.  I needed a different way to teach it.  On my way to school one day this week, a thought popped into my head and when I got to school I quickly changed my plan for math that day and I am so glad that I did.

I created a SMARTboard notebook page with a part, part, whole organizer and then a subtraction problem at the bottom.  Then I added stars to be our manipulatives.

I pulled student number sticks and had students come up to represent first the whole with stars and then writing the number on the equation.

Then another student would come up and move some of the stars to the first part box and write their number on the equation.

Lastly, a final student moved the rest of the stars into the second part box and wrote our answer on the line.

My students love any chance they get to use the SMARTboard and this really helped them grasp the concept of the part, part, whole mat.  On Monday, they will do the same lesson, but this time with a partner and their own mat and manipulatives rather than whole group.  I know that it will be much easier this time for them as they quickly grasped the concept during our SMARTboard lesson.