Counting to Add and Subtract Worksheets
When students first encounter the addition and subtraction operation, teachers often use what is called the counting strategy to explain this process. The counting strategy is just as it sounds, for addition we teach students that we are just counting up. Some teachers will go a step forward and explain it as a recipe. They would explain the problem 6 + 7 =, as you start with 6 and count up 7 places which would give us 13. For subtracting we tell students to count backwards. They would explain the problem 5 -2 =, as your starting value is 5, count backwards 2 places which would leave us with 3 as the difference. This strategy is very effective for helping students become fluent with the operations with values that total 20. Once you get over 20, it just becomes to time consuming and clumsy to continue with counting. That is the stage where we will shift to math facts. These worksheets and lessons will help you much better understand the use of this method.
Aligned Standard: Grade 1 Operations - 1.OA.5, 1.OA.6
- Counting With Sums Step-by-step Lesson- We work on skip by 2s to 20. We show it as repeated addition.
- Skip Counting and Sequences Guided Lesson - Skip counting by 3s, 4s, and find a missing number in a sequence.
- Guided Lesson Explanation - We work through all of the answers for you.
- Sentence Based Practice Worksheet - These are like mini-word problems that all involve sums and differences.
- Matching Sums and Equations Worksheet - We give you a series of addition equations and ask you to match it to their sums.
- Answer Keys - These are for all the unlocked materials above.
Guided Lessons
These sheets will lead students to start to contemplate patterns and ordered systems.
- Guided Lesson 1 - Can you catch your mistake?
- Step-by-step Lesson 1 - Should have called this the count by 2s lesson.
- Count by 5s Lesson 2 - There is a big gap from counting by 2s to counting by 5s.
- Lesson 3 - Time to count by 4s in this sequence.
- Write What's Missing Guided Lesson 4 - There is a hole in this pattern. Plug it up!
Practice Worksheets
After students have a good handle on the skill, start using these sheets.
- Matching Worksheet- Heavy sums practice that will lead them into the next level.
- Write the Missing Number Worksheet- Fixed sequences that are all but finished.
- Relate Counting to Operations Practice- These are super empty patterns for you to work with.
- Circle the Wrong Answer Practice Worksheet - All the patterns are wrong. Find the number that botched it!
How Does Addition and Subtraction Relate to Counting?
Addition and subtraction are the two most basic operations in counting. In simple terms, it is just like moving forward and backward on a numbers line. The process of adding means the value is going forward for a space. For example 6 + 1 and 4 + 3. In the first instance we are starting at 6 and counting 1 space up. In the other instance we are starting at 4 and moving up 3 spaces. Subtraction means you are going backward that number of spaces on the numbersline. For example the problems a) 5 - 2 and b) 9 - 7 translate to a) starting at 5 and moving back 2 spaces. b) Starting at 9 and moving back 7 spaces. Addition is the operation in which we count two different values and then add them together, or we simply add numbers together. In addition, the answer is always bigger than all the numbers combined in the process, i.e. 4 + 3 = 7. We can see that 7 is greater than 4 and 3. We can also see that we started at 4 and counted up 3 (4, 5, 6, 7) to make the number 7. In normal subtraction, we remove a smaller number from the bigger number and then count what is left. For example, when we see the equation 5 - 2 =, it means 2 will be removed from the number 5. When 5 is removed from 2, the answer is 3. As mentioned earlier, subtraction means counting backwards, which is, in this case, means moving two spaces back from 5. i.e., 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. When we jump two spaces back, we get 3. These are two most interchangeable mathematical operations there are.You will get a great deal of use out of these worksheets.