Here is our current target. This will stay up until we have mastered addition, subtraction, multiplication, & division equations. To get everyone ready to solve equations we began by working some very simple number sentence problems like: Students were quick to tell me the answer was 4. I then asked them to explain why the answer was 4 and to be able to tell how they figured this out. Here are their answers I counted up from 5 to 9 I subtracted 9 - 5 All perfect answers. I explained that the subtraction was the best choice because not always are we able to count up easily because of fractions, decimals, or really big numbers. We then inserted a variable into a number sentence problem and students realized they had been thinking algebraically for a long time. For our 1st day working on addition equations, my main goal was getting students to show their work correctly. So I showed two examples with work shown. This is what I expect to see on their homework.
