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How Children Solve Addition and Subtraction Problems

Videos:

• What is Direct Modeling?

• Joining All & Joining To

• Separate From & Separate To

• Matching & Trial and Error

• Count On & Count On From Larger

• Count Up, Count Down, & Count Down To

Children begin solving addition and subtraction story problems with direct modeling. In this method students will model every object in the problem. In addition, they will follow the structure of the problem, not the operation needed to solve the problem.

As students advance, they begin to use counting methods for solving problems. These are solved similar to direct modeling methods, but do not require every object in the problem to be modeled.