Subtraction with Missing Minuends or Subtrahends
A Free Teaching Unit
Want MORE free teaching and practice units? Check out my math freebies page!
Last week I released a unit on teaching addition with missing addends - and today I am giving you the same thing, except with strategies for subtraction equations with missing parts!
This is an important skill for kids to learn, definitely by third grade (but is usually taught in first and second grade). It will be useful when they encounter higher math problems with missing parts or facts in problem-solving. It's really not a difficult concept to teach either - although your learners may need to spend more or less time on it depending on their learning style.
I make these units to teach my own youngest daughter who does not always do very well with the traditional math textbooks - these units are short, to the point, and have plenty of colouring opportunities (which she loves - and they help her absorb information better!) Of course, even if your learner does not learn in the same way, you can use these units to quickly cover concepts that you feel might be missing from their math skills or curricula.
Explanation Posters and Teaching Aids
I always try to include some sort of teaching aids in most of my units. These are meant to be read out loud to kids, but you could also use them to teach yourself teaching methods and then teach your kids in your own way. For example, if you have a learner who learns best through hands-on activities, you could read through how to teach solving a subtraction equation with a missing subtrahend, then teach them using counters or toys or even online math manipulative simulator.
Just as in my addition unit, I included a sheet to teach using these methods with problem-solving as well!
Practice, practice and more practice sheets!
We all know that practice in math concepts is SO important so I included a few worksheets for each strategy, including problem-solving. I also included some blank worksheets that could be printed out and written in, or edited in Adobe or a PDF editor to write in your own equations or problems.
If you're teaching in a classroom, you could write some problems on the board or projector for kids to copy down. If you're homeschooling, you could write down the problems for your kiddo to solve or have them write them in a pdf editor themselves. There are many ways to use these sheets to get in plenty of practice!
Problem Solving
As I mentioned above, I include problem-solving in this unit to show kids how to apply the strategies they've learned to problem-solving, or real-world situations. Sometimes it is difficult for kids to take a math skill and apply it to a word problem, so it is super important to help them practice this.
I have also included two problem-solving situations for them to practice with, as well as blank worksheets you could fill in on your own - or even have your learners create their own problems for YOU or their classmates to solve!
To download this free unit, just click on the link below. It will bring you to a google drive page where you can download or print it out (just please be sure to not leave the drive link open as this can slow down downloads for others - thank you!)
If you want to share this unit, please feel free to send people to this blog post or my math freebies page too! You may also distribute copies of the printed material for FREE as long as my website address remains on the pages. Please do not share the direct google drive link as this causes it to stop working. Thank you!!