Learning Addition Facts: Practice Drills for Beginners

What Are Some Tips for Teaching Addition Facts?

Addition instruction typically begins with a logical introduction to the concept of combining numbers. If you're going to teach students addition, a fun way to begin is having them add up their fingers and toes. Once there is an understanding of counting and grouping, teach the symbols to represent number operations. It may be helpful to teach addition with counters, which are small objects that students can use to add when they run out of fingers. In addition, make sure your students are solving story or word problems on a regular basis.

To familiarize students with common addition facts, use repetition by having students interact with important addition patterns, for instance 2 + 8 = 10 and 2 + 18 =20. A more direct way of teaching students about addition facts would be to teach tricks of the trade. For instance, when teaching 9 +1 through 9 + 9, you can tell students that the answer will have one less than the number that is being added. For instance, 9 + 5 is 14 and you can quickly know that because the answer will have one number less than the number 5 - which is 4 - hence the answer, 14. However, be aware that these tricks may confuse some students.

Addition Problems

Simple

1. 3 + 7 = 10

2. 9 + 4 = 13

3. 2 + 5 = 7

4. 10 + 1 = 11

5. 8 + 2 = 10

Two-Digit Addition

1. 81 + 60 = 141

2. 36 + 50 = 86

3. 22 + 42 = 64

4. 25 + 25 = 50

5. 99 + 1 = 100

Word Problems

1. At your birthday, there are three blue presents, five red presents and two green presents. How many presents are there in all?

When you teach word problems in class, take the opportunity to introduce students to key words. For instance, 'total' and 'in all' often indicate that you will use addition to solve the problem. The answer to this question is that there are ten presents in all.

2. Stacy has two birds, three dogs, one cat and two hamsters. How many pets in total does Stacy have?

Because addition is still very new to these students, it may be helpful for them to draw the objects. This way, they will have a visual representation, which can help them add up the items. For this problem, the answer is that Stacy has a total of eight pets.

3. Megan's sister has $22.03 and Megan has $23.12. How much money do the sisters have in all? The answer is $45.15.

4. Right now, it is 2:02 pm in the afternoon. What time will it be in 15 minutes? The answer is 2:17 pm.

5. At his lemonade stand, Jesse sold five glasses of lemonade. In the afternoon, he sold 11 glasses. In the evening, he sold two glasses. How many glasses did he sell in all? The answer is 18 glasses of lemonade.