Are You Teaching How to Add Whole Numbers?

Last week we talked about teaching how to round number. That standard was CC.4.NBT.3, generalize place value understanding for multi-digit whole numbers. Click here to read that previous post. This week's post is about teaching how to add whole numbers. The standard is CC.4.NBT.A.2 - Read and write multi-digit whole numbers using base-ten numerals, number names, and expanded form. Compare two multi-digit numbers based on meanings of the digits in each place, using >, =, and < symbols to record the results of comparisons.

Add Whole Numbers

Each week, on Wednesday, I plan to blog about lessons, tips and resources for fourth grade math teachers. If you are new to my blog, I love math and have had many years teaching it. I love small group teaching, but for small groups to run smoothly, your math centers, your math workstations, have to have activities and worksheets that the students can do without you. To that end, I've created many center games, task cards and worksheet bundles to help you in my TpT store.

Now...back to the math,

Adding numbers with more than one-digit requires an understanding of place value. The place value of a digit is the value based on its position within the number. In the number 657, the 6 is in the hundreds place, the 5 is in the tens place, and the 7 is in the ones place. To see more about reviewing place value, click here or here.

LESSON:
Start by telling your students that real world math often gives us many examples of when we need to have a solid understanding of place value, and adding large numbers can lead to many mistakes. Yes, we all have calculators on our phones in this day and age, but students still need this skill. Even the mental math of rounding the numbers, then adding them to get a ball park answer is important.

For Example:
You're going to a summer trip, the first week you hope to drive 3,225 miles and the second week you will need to drive 2,875 miles. How far will you be going so that you can figure out the next step, how much money will you need for gas?
*** If you do a little mental math, you will realize that you will travel about, 6,000 miles. If you get 600 or 60,000 moving on to the next step, you might budget too little money for gas or too much.

Give your students a few more real world examples to practice rounding numbers and adding them mentally.

1. A construction company has 185,687 worker's hours this week, and the next week they will have 210,565 hours, how many payroll hours will they be paying out this pay period?

2. A US Navy ship needs 15,200 bread rolls for lunch and 32,075 bread rolls for dinner. How many bread rolls do they need each day? How many for a week?

3. A football team has a total 845 yards rushing from all their players in one game. Last week, they had a total of 620 yards. How many yards have they had in this two week season so far?

4. Your family has 325,975 pennies and your cousin's family has 132,987 pennies. How many pennies does your family have all together? Bonus: How much money is this?

Once you have worked on the mental math of these problems, it is time to put pencil to paper, and work out the addition of multi-digit whole numbers. )

I love graph paper for place value!

In addition to getting graph paper from the store, you can also print some out for your boys and girls for free, at this web site, Free Online Graph Paper.

I recommend several examples together on the board, or on your digital camera. Model lining them up, one digit at a time on the graph paper, so that they look like this, to help with lining up the place value.

Here are some ready made examples to help you.

1. 565,545 + 236,547 =

2. 623,849 + 145,846 =

3. 214,698 + 398,475 =

4. 420,206 + 398,651 =

5. 118,655 + 325,716 =

Answers:

1. 802,092

2. 769,695

3. 613,173

4. 818,857

5. 444,371

Then, taking it up a step, students need to transition from the graph paper to writing the problems themselves. I always love teaching them to make a quick chart on the paper.... first let them use different colored markers, besides the fact that it's fun, the colors help them have a mental imprint on their brain after they have practiced, helping them to remember to line these problems up correctly. Later, they can just use their pencil. Teaching them to make a quick chart is one more thing that your fourth graders can add to their tool box of math tricks.

A Quick Chart to Add to Your Students' Mental Math Tool Box

BE ON THE LOOK OUT FOR THIS STUDENT ERROR:
Incorrectly aligning the addends. The cold hard reality of teaching is over-testing, over-standardized-testing! The more side tips, side tricks we can teach our students to use on the test, gives them more confidence heading into test time. This little chart is something they can easily create QUICKLY to ensure they line up the place value correctly to do the ADDITION correctly.

EXTENDING THE LESSON:

Rework some of the about problems in student pairs with white boards and calculators. The students can work a problem, trade whiteboards and double check each other's work with the calculator. They love working in pairs in 4th grade and calculator skills are a well needed life skill too!

I've created a center game resource and a task card resource, as well as a discounted bundle to help you introduce, reinforce, remediate and spiral review this skills.

Standard: CC.4.NBT.A.2 - Read and write multi-digit whole numbers using base-ten numerals, number names, and expanded form. Compare two multi-digit numbers based on meanings of the digits in each place, using >, =, and < symbols to record the results of comparisons.

4th Grade Go Math 1.6 Add Whole Numbers Bundle

This math resource includes:

Center Game:
Two pages of problems
One page of answers
One Adorable Cover Listing the Skill and Example, perfect for your Center Cover - Folder Cover or Ziplock Baggie.

Task Cards:
28 Task cards
1 Recording sheet
1 Answer key

This discounted bundle contains the following two resources, also available for purchase separately at TpT.

4th Grade Go Math 1.6 Add Whole Numbers Task Cards

This resource includes:
28 Task Cards
1 Recording Sheet
1 Answer Key which can also be used as a Student Self-Checking Sheet.

4th Grade Go Math 1.6 Add Whole Numbers Center Games

This resource includes:
Two pages of problems
One page of answers
One Adorable Cover Listing the Skill and Example, perfect for your Center Cover - Folder Cover or Ziplock Baggie.