Teaching Addition and Finding Missing numbers

Highlights:

A grid of numbers, drawn on the floor, can be used to introduce students to the addition of 2-digit numbers, allowing the students to actively move around and enjoy while learning the concept of addition (forward counting) and subtraction (reverse counting)

When children are introduced to addition for the first time, we generally use objects like beads, straws, pebbles, and other such things to help them get a sense of the quantity that the number signifies as well as to demonstrate what addition basically means. However, for the addition of 2-digit numbers, when there is no carry over involved, we only make use of our fingers to count. Last year, I implemented a different method in which the students were allowed to actively move around to learn the addition of two numbers. I wrote the numbers from 1 to 50 on the floor. The order of numbering was done in a way to enable children to step to the number in the next row easily. Then I asked the students to find the sum of 24 and 15.

I wrote down the problem on the board i.e. 24 + 15 = ⬜

I asked one of the students to stand on the number 24, and I asked the other students to say the numbers from starting from 1 to 15. With each number being counted by the students, the student who was standing on the number box was to step to the next box. Finally, at the count of 15, it was seen that the student stepped on the number 39, which was the answer to the question. The students enjoyed this activity a lot more than by learning and understanding addition through the counting of their fingers. For the subsequent problems, I displayed the number chart on the wall and asked the students to add numbers with the help of the chart.
I used a similar method to find the missing number in the problem 24 + ⬜ = 39
This time, I asked two students from the class to volunteer to do the sum. I asked one student to stand on the number 24 and asked the other student to stand on the number 39. The student standing on number 24 was asked to step to the next number as the class counted the number of steps taken. In this case, the class counted to 15 when the student reached 39. Thus, it was realized that 15 was the missing number in the problem. Usually, finding the 2-digit missing numbers becomes a difficult task for children, especially when they are not familiar with subtraction. This method helped me teaching it to my students with ease.

Teacher: Maheshwari G. (PST), GPS Karayambuthur