Addition and Subtraction Activity

More or Less

Source: Elementary and Middle School Mathematics: teaching developmentally by John A. Van De Walle, Karen S. Karp, and Jennifer M. Bay-Williams.  Chapter 8, activity 8.11 “More, Less, or the Same”

Materials: (for each pair or small group)

·      Deck of more or less than cards

·      Set of number cards (numbers 3-10)

·      cup

Directions:

·      One child draws a number card and places it face up

o   That number of counters is placed into the cup

·      Another child draws one of the more-or-less cards and puts in next to the number card

o   If it’s a more card, counters are added to cup,

o   If it’s a less card, counters are taken out of the cup

o   If it’s a zero card, no change is made

·      Students predict the number of counters now in the cup

·      Then the cup is emptied and the counters are counted to see if they are correct

·      After this the process repeats from the beginning