It’s Your Turn!

Practice!

Goal: Identify “best-choice” strategies for specific addition sentences.

We have reviewed all four addition strategies: Counting On, Ten Frames, Doubles, and Near Doubles. Before we use these strategies, let’s think about other tools that help us add. You may remember using counters, paper clips, coins, and your fingers to help you solve addition problems. Maybe you even used Unifix cubes, base-ten blocks, tiles, or other small objects. All of these objects are called manipulatives. Manipulatives are objects you can move around with your hands to help you solve number sentences. You can use addition strategies along with manipulatives to solve addition sentences, like counters on ten frames or your fingers to count on!

Now it is time to put your addition strategies and manipulatives to use! This unicorn is labeled with the addition sentence 8 + 3 = 11. What addition strategy would you use to solve this addition sentence? Move the unicorn to the strategy you think is the best fit.

8 + 3 = 11

8 + 3 = 11 is a tricky addition sentence because it can be solved using more than one strategy. If you answered Counting On or Ten Frames, you are correct!

If you chose Counting On, you may have said the addend 8 in your head, then counted 3 on.

9 10 11

8 +  

If you chose Ten Frames, you may have placed two different colors of counters in ten frames.

When faced with an addition sentence that can be solved with more than one strategy, choose the strategy that you feel most comfortable using. This is your “best-fit” strategy. A best-fit strategy will help you feel confident while solving a number sentence.