Mrs. Wheeler's First Grade Tidbits: Missing Addend Practice

We've really worked hard all year to get our Math facts down. Now that the majority of the class has a good, strong grip on their facts, I felt it was time to introduce the missing addend! We have dabbled with it a bit in Kelley's morning work, but it's never been "formally introduced." I noticed that I needed some materials to teach this tricky concept so I created the "Missing Addend Monsters." It's a great little pack that has a poster, introductory activity, board game, manipulative mats, a Scoot game, and a few other goodies.

To introduce the concept, I wrote a missing addend fact on the board and then showed my "Mystery Bag." I told students that one of the addends was missing and they had to help me figure out what it was. Fortunately because they have such a good grip on number sense, many were able to tell me how to solve the mystery. We checked the number that they said with the mystery bag and sure enough, they were right!

Next we worked on some guided practice with our addend/addend/sum mats. I found some conversation hearts for cheap at a drugstore and everyone got a box of them as well as a Vis-a-Vis marker and a baby wipe. We began by writing a sum in with our marker and placing a number of hearts in one of the addend boxes. We practiced counting up from the addend to figure out the unknown addend. Although some had a grip on missing addend prior, this concrete activity helped others really make sense of it.

As the week progressed, we played a fun board game-we had to look out for the missing addend monster! We also played the BEST GAME!! It's the Mystery Monster Game! Gameplay directions and pieces available in my "Missing Addend Monsters" Pack, shown below!!