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Making Ten to Add & Subtract: A Live Workshop for K–2 Teachers
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Looking to deepen your students' understanding of addition and subtraction within 20? These numberless word problems offer a powerful way to shift the focus from quickly solving to thinking critically. By removing the numbers, students are encouraged to focus on structure, relationships, and context—the true foundation of mathematical problem solving.
Looking to deepen your students’ understanding of addition and subtraction within 20?
These numberless word problems offer a powerful way to shift the focus from quickly solving to thinking critically. By removing the numbers, students are encouraged to focus on structure, relationships, and context—the true foundation of mathematical problem solving.
This math enrichment resource is perfect for guiding students to visualize problems, ask meaningful questions, and make sense of real-world situations before jumping to a solution. It’s ideal for math talks, whole-group lessons, small groups, intervention, or enrichment.
What’s Included:
Use these problems to:
This resource is especially helpful for first and second grade classrooms, but can also be used for remediation or challenge in other grades. Whether you’re using it for a quick math warm-up, number talk, or guided math lesson, these numberless problems invite deeper reasoning and discussion.
Want to help students slow down, visualize, and truly understand the math? These numberless word problems are a great place to start.
✅ Download the preview to get a closer look at these templates and examples from my classroom!
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Practical K-2 math and upper-elementary morphology ideas, straight to your inbox. No spam, unsubscribe any time.
Join me for a hands-on workshop exploring what to model, which questions to ask, and how to respond when students get stuck using ten to add and subtract.
Includes a printable Teacher Toolkit, ready-to-use Number Talks, and the workshop recording.
Brenda Winking –
I loved using this to introduce my students to word problems. They didn’t need to worry about numbers. We just focused on comprehending the problem!
MyCrazyTownLife –
Love a great set of word problems for students to practice their problem solving skills.
Kara O. –
This is an excellent resource to give more experience with my first graders in solving story problems.
Janel W. –
I like the choices of problems and choices for students to pick their own numbers.
Allison K. –
Many students look for “keywords” to solve word problems. This is the perfect resource for getting students to understand what the problem is asking.
Bonnie W. –
These were great. The students enjoyed practicing and working on one, then present it to the class as the ‘expert’ on the problem. They ALL wanted a turn.
Jenna A. –
Love how my students have to really think about what the word problem is trying to communicate as they make up their own numbers.
Jessica A –
I love the idea of working on word problem strategies without kids trying to figure out the answer by just looking at the numbers.
Marcia A. –
This is a great math resource for challenging and differentiating their learning.
Reading with Firsties –
I use this resource as a weekly center. Students glue a problem into their notebooks and solve. They love getting to pick their own numbers!
Gretchen C. –
These are the perfect numberless word problems. I love that there are several of each word problem type. Thank you!
Ashley G. –
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A fantastic way to build problem-solving skills!
This resource has been an incredible addition to my math lessons! The numberless word problems encourage students to focus on the context and develop strong problem-solving skills before even adding numbers. It’s perfect for reinforcing addition and subtraction within 20 in a way that challenges students to think critically. My students have really enjoyed the activities, and I’ve seen a noticeable improvement in their ability to approach word problems with confidence. Highly recommend for teachers looking to enrich their math curriculum!
Michelle I. –
These are great practice for understanding and solving word problems.
Lynn M. –
My students enjoy using these as part of their centers during math.
JoAnne M. –
This resource was so useful for my class. It was great for differentiating during math centers.
Amanda C. –
These numberless word problems help my students focus on making sense of the problem and determining which operation needs to be performed, rather than just grabbing the numbers and often adding. Brown Bag Teacher is one of my favorite resources for increasing the rigor of my instruction!