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Your Mental Math Strategy Solution

The resources you need to teach mental math strategies in a practical, strategic, and visual way.

These Mental Math Addition and Subtraction Strategy Units provide you with the materials you need to reinforce flexible thinking with addition and subtraction. These units include whole-class math talks, independent practice, and center activities to ensure that mental math strategies are being taught, reinforced, and practiced in many different ways and settings.

Hi! I’m Shelley!

When I first began teaching, I believed what many people still believe – that the standard algorithm was more effective than mental math because it allowed students to get a correct answer faster. 

But at the time I did not understand that faster is not the goal.

The generation of kids that we are teaching will have calculators and computers to get answers quickly. What they need is the ability to reason and to think flexibly and strategically.

When I started teaching mental math strategies such as left-to-right addition, I was amazed at how fluent my students became! They were able to solve large equations in seconds – much faster (and more effectively) than I imagined!

The more I have learned about mental math, the more fascinated I have become. My journey as a math educator has led me to understand the incredible importance of flexible, strategic thinking. 

The importance of SEEING the math in order to understand it. 

The importance of being able to think about a math problem in many different ways.

Mental Math Addition and Subtraction Strategies will help your students:

Mental Math Addition and Subtraction Strategies can work for you even if:

Are these Mental Math Strategy Units right for me?

This Mental Math Addition and Subtraction Strategy Bundle is designed for busy teachers who want to give their students the opportunity to become fluent with addition and subtraction and meet them exactly where they are at. It’s for teachers who are ready to make the leap from teaching for memorization and speed to teaching for understanding. It’s for teachers who are truly committed to their students’ understanding and who live for those light bulb moments where strategic thinking finally “clicks” for their students.

These Mental Math Strategy Units have been used in thousands of classrooms as well as by intervention teachers, special education teachers, homeschool parents, and even grandparents helping their grandchildren with addition and subtraction.

I am passionate about helping you make math exciting, fun, and relevant for your students. 

You don’t have to continue to face the same problems with math facts year after year.

The gaps in understanding that are holding your students back CAN be filled!

Math anxiety and dread can be changed to excitement and engagement!

This resource includes everything you need to make teaching mental math strategies a huge success in your classroom, including:

Teacher support is very important to me and I do everything possible to guide you through the process of teaching mental math strategies in your classroom. Many of the units come with accompanying videos to help you get started with the strategy.

BONUS: You’ll also get these bonus Addition Strategy Mats when you purchase the Mental Math Strategy Bundle. These math mats will help your students practice addition strategies in a hands-on way, ensuring that understanding is built through concrete activities.

FAQs

These Mental Math Strategy Units are used with Grades 1-4 students, with the most popular grade levels being 2 and 3. Some units, such as Counting On and Doubles are better suited to younger grades, while others such as Left-to-Right Addition and Compensation are better suited to older grade levels. 

Many teachers find that the bundle allows them to differentiate to students based on their unique needs.

These units are used by teachers in a variety of ways and I’ve included materials for a variety of teaching methods. The Math Talks and Number Strings make fantastic whole-class discussions. The activity sheets are great for independent use or as part of small-group instruction. The center activities make good partner activities to get kids working together.

I recommend using manipulatives to supplement your math instruction, regardless of which topic you are teaching. Many students in your classroom NEED the concrete experiences in order to make sense of what they are learning, and ALL of your students will benefit from those experiences. These units incorporate a lot of visuals such as ten frames and base ten blocks. If you can make these materials available to your students as they learn about the strategy, it will help them make connections between concrete, pictorial, and abstract representations.