Thursday, September 12, 2013

MaTh activity Thursday: Subtraction

Hello!  Sorry I am a bit late in posting.  Today for MaTh activity Thursday I will be focusing on subtraction.
Whenever I think about subtraction, I think of action.  Things being reduced takes action on someones part.  Just think of these situations.
  • Butterflies on a bush, then some fly away.
  • So many fish and then a predator comes and eats some or all of them.
  • Five lights are and then three are turned off.
  • Twelve grapes in a bunch and then seven are eaten.
  • Six bottles of paint are used for a mural and there are only two bottles left after all the painting is done.
  • Ten bowling pins are up and after the throw three remain.
If you feel a child is ready you can also introduce the concept of negative numbers (this can be as early as about four years old)...
  • It is negative ten degrees outside and then the temperature rises six degrees.
  • There are four barefoot children but only seven socks.
  • Three hungry split up to look for food and two of them found something to eat.
  • Tom drew 25 circles on his paper and grabbed a bunch of Cheerios, but after putting one in each circle there were still 7 empty circles.
My activity suggestion is to have a 

Subtraction Scavenger Hunt.
  • Prepare enough 3x5 cards or something similar for each student to get three.  Write a different subtraction problem (For example 7-5=) on each card.
  • Have the children randomly pick their first card (it might be good to work in groups).
  • Give them two minutes to find objects or discover a way to represent their problem.  (For my example they might pick up seven toy cars and show you five driving away OR seven pencils in a cup and five are taken out.)
  • Have the children write down their word problem and show the class if there is time.
  • Repeat two more times.
I would love to hear how this activity goes for you and if the kids have fun.  It could even be homework.

On Saturday I'll be having a guest blogger here.  Be sure to come back and check it out : )  And remember to link up any of your math blog posts : )

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