This post is intended to be helpful in teaching addition facts up to 18 and the corresponding subtraction facts to first graders. The books and websites selected offer resources on different levels for those students who may be struggling, and for others who made need enrichment.
BEST BOOKS FOR TEACHING ADDITION & SUBTRACTION
- The Hershey's Kisses Addition Book by Jerry Pallotta illustrated by Rob Bolster: This book introduces children to basic addition. It illustrates a plus sign, a minus sign, an equal sign and a Hershey’s Kiss, which is the counting unit used throughout the book. From there, clowns carry, drag, throw and juggle Hershey’s Kisses to illustrate each addition equation. Most of the equations use single digits, but the book then adds single digits to the number 10. Equations are done horizontally and vertically.
- The Hershey's Kisses Subtraction Book by Jerry Pallotta illustrated by Rob Bolster: Because children love chocolate, this book is a great way to teach them the basics of subtraction with Hershey’s Kisses. This is an appropriate follow up to The Hershey's Kisses Addition Book by the same author.
- The Mission of Addition by Brian P. Cleary illustrated by Brian Gable: This book introduces young readers to basic addition concepts in a fun, playful way. The story combines silly illustrations of cat-like characters drawn in bright vibrant colors, with playful rhyme, to teach addition starting with simple problems and progressing to more difficult throughout the story.
- The Action of Subtraction by Brian P. Cleary illustrated by Brian Gable: The book adds a sense of humor to the subject of subtraction, proving that sometimes, less is really more. The comical cats show young readers the basic concept of taking one number away from another.
- The M&M's Addition Book by Barbara Barbieri McGrath: Rhyming text and illustrations use candy to teach mathematical skills, including review of counting and estimation and single and double digit addition.
BEST WEBSITES FOR KIDS TO EXPLORE ADDITION & SUBTRACTION
- CoolMath4Kids These two links offer several choices to students to explore the topic of addition and subtraction . The addition page offers a beginner’s lesson on addition, including written steps and pictorial representation of this operation. It also offers a number line activity, using a yard stick (or ruler) to practice addition instead of using finger counting. There are several other options offered to practice two and three-digit addition for the expert student! The subtraction page also offers a beginner’s lesson on subtraction, including written steps and pictorial representation of this operation. The yard stick activity is adapted to teach subtraction, and this page also offers instruction on fact families to help students to begin understanding the relationship between addition and subtraction. There are also a few other activities which include place value and two/three-digit subtraction for the student who has mastered the basics.
- Math Cats This website has an enormous amount of resources available for teaching math including lesson plans and worksheets. The word problem activity offers over 100 math word problems and their level of difficulty is categorized by cats of different ages including kitten, house cat, alley cat, etc. The categories most appropriate for first graders are kittens and alley cats. All categories offer numeric solutions as well as answers in word format.
- Math is Fun! This is an awesome website which offers resources on all areas of math by category, as well as math worksheets and a helpful dictionary of math terms. Specifically, the addition resources include the definition of addition and other helpful vocabulary terms, both numeric and pictorial representations of addition, links to related activities, and an addition table. Similarly, the subtraction resources include the definition of subtraction and other helpful vocabulary terms, both numeric and pictorial representations of the operation, subtraction table, and links to other related activities.
- Fun Brain This interactive website offers links to several addition and subtraction games which are a fun way for first graders to practice these operations and maybe even get a little competitive with each other! Those which are specifically related to the this topic are the following: Soccer Shootout (Whole Numbers), MathCar Racing, Tic Tac Toe Squares, Math Baseball, and Line Jumper. All of the games prompt the student to select an easy, medium, or hard group of addition and subtraction problems in order to allow differentiation. The solution to every problem is offered immediately after an answer is selected by the user, and the program also keeps score as the student plays.
- AAA Math This website offers several categories of resources to help teach both addition and subtraction. The relevant addition topics include basic addition – adding using objects, numbers, and words; addition facts – including facts up to 20; addition – topics from mental math to using calculators; properties and relationships – relationships between addition/subtraction and addition/multiplication; and addition skills – adding money, time, and other uses of addition. The helpful subtraction topics include basic subtraction – subtracting using objects, numbers, and words; subtraction facts – including facts up to 20; subtraction – topics from mental math to using calculators; and relationships – exploring link between subtraction/addition and subtraction/division.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR SUPPORTING INSTRUCTION
- Counting Wildflowers Lesson available on Hotchalk’s Lesson Plans Page – Incorporates reading the book Counting Wildflowers by Bruce McMillan with addition and subtraction practice. The students are presented with different scenarios throughout the pages of the book which gives them a pictorial representation of the operations. After reading the book and performing the operations in several different ways, the students participate in an activity to make bouquets of fresh flowers with the greatest value. The student who wins the competition is allowed to take the bouquet home to their mother.
- KidZone Addition and Subtraction – Offer free printable worksheets for addition and subtraction practice using many different themes to get students interested in learning. Problems are presented both vertically and horizontally and range from easy to more advanced.
- Math Cats Addition and Subtraction Idea Bank – Includes unique ideas for instructional strategies, directions for engaging addition and subtraction classroom activities, floor games, Cuisenaire rod games, information about fact families, and a forum for discussion among interested teachers.
- Ways to Teach Addition and Subtraction in the Early Grades article by Marilyn Burns – lists several different activity ideas including games and even classroom routines to help teach and reinforce addition and subtraction. She also offers ideas for books and articles which relate to the topic.