Subtraction can be easy but when a child doesn't understand the concept, it can be a problem.
One day, Wayne came to me asking me to teach him how to solve a subtraction question which his dad has given him. It was a little difficult for his age as it involves "borrow".
This is how I taught him:
One day, Wayne came to me asking me to teach him how to solve a subtraction question which his dad has given him. It was a little difficult for his age as it involves "borrow".
This is how I taught him:
The top right number represents YOU. In this case, you have 6 sweets in your pocket.
The bottom right number represents your brother (kor kor). One day, kor kor come to you and say, "Wayne, please give me 8 sweets."
Do you have enough to sweets to give him? NO!
The top left number represents mummy. So, you ran to mummy and ask mummy to lend you some sweets but mom only has sweets in packets. Each packet has 10.
So, she took one packet and give it to you.
Now, you open the packet and give kor kor 8 sweets. How many sweets are left in that packet? 2.
How many do you have in your pocket originally? 6
How many sweets in total do you have left? 8
So, that's the answer on the right (unit column).
Back to mummy, mummy has 3 packets originally but after giving you one packet, how many packets does mummy have now? 2
That's the answer on the left (tens column)
SO, your answer for 36-8 is 28.
He understood and was so eager to try the next question. Way to go, Wayne!
8 comments:
me understooded too.. thanx for sharing.. i've not come to the stage where i need to teach substraction, so no tips and advise there.. solly.
At the moment, I'm still teaching my girl subtraction by using circles - telling her stories about 'taking away'/crossing out items on a piece of paper. Thanks for sharing your method of teaching, will definitely try out with my girl when she's more advance.
I'm using the same way to teach XY too (borrow from the tens). But not as clear or creative as urs. :) She tends to be quite forgetful. Hv to be reminded often. But once she gets the hang of it, she can do the subtractions.
thks for sharing this JO! it sounds interesting for the kids :)P
i wonder how the teacher in the school is teaching this...??
Hi Jo-N, my 6yo boy is learning substraction (borrow) too. The teacher teaches them using counters. He always forget to take away one from the "mommy", hehe...
Wonder how the teacher at school teach Wayne?
My boy used to count using fingers when he was 5, but at this new kindy, his teacher wants him to use counters, the kindy's method!
In my girl's kindergarten (she is 5 years old), they teach by asking her to remember the largest sum in her head and count down the other number (e.g 18 - 4 --> 18 in the head, count down 17, 16, 15, 14... the last number is the answer). However, if she were to count down fast, she might skipped one / two numbers, which I find it's not an effective method of learning subtraction. Yours is quite creative... will try your method on her soon. Thanks!
yay! i think in order for them to learn something, it must have some fun factor in it. good job jo-n.
last week our group held a similar talk on this subject and you illustrate something we haven't covered yet, thanks.
- Kris
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