How Do You Add?

Common Core Math has ushered in new ways of doing addition.  No longer do we have to align numbers vertically as done in the ‘old’ standard algorithm.  Second graders have been taught seven other ways to solve addition problems.  Here is a list of the strategies that have been presented:

• mental math
• building to the next ten
• building to the next hundred
• partial sums
• decomposing numbers
• column addition
• number line 

Michael states “I was excited and proud that I learned other ways to solve addition problems. Before learning the different strategies, I always used the building to the next ten or next hundred.  Now, I really don’t have a favorite, I like them ALL!”

Kallie states “I really like the partial sums method because you’re grouping and adding all the hundreds together, then the tens, and finally the ones.  It’s like looking at the number in expanded form.”

When I learned the other ways of doing addition, “I felt excited because it taught me more ways to find the answer,” says Ethan.

Students were given problems to solve and here is an explanation of the strategy they used to solve them.