Activity Overview
Students learn to use manipulatives and calculators to explore what happens when they change one number at a time in a subtraction number sentence. They record and develop the pattern that develops.
After the Activity
Students will explore the following concepts in this activity:
- Whole numbers
- Subtraction
- Patterns
About the Lesson
To introduce the activity, read There Were Ten in a Bed or Five Little Ducks and write number sentences for one of the stories together as a class.
Distribute the student activity and have students choose a new number sentences and write it on their activity sheets. Next, ask them to model the story they chose with manipulatives. Finally, ask students to choose one number in the story to change, and repeat the above.