Teach Addition with Picture Books

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This wonderful collection will help you teach addition with picture books. Using picture books to show students just how math works in real life is a great way to motivate reluctant learners.

Do you have a child who wonders {often aloud} why they have to do math? When are they ever going to use the skills you’re teaching them?

Having a strong understanding of the basic math operations – addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division – is essential for kids to grasp as early as possible. Without a strong understanding of the basics, advanced math operations will be more difficult.

To ensure my kids had a strong foundation, we practiced often. We did worksheets. We used flashcards. We played games, and we read picture books.

Teach Addition with Picture Books

As with my ‘teach subtraction with picture books‘ post, I’m going to start with Brian P. Cleary books. The Mission of Addition is a fun cartoony way to introduce or review addition with young learners. Kids have fun counting bubbles and buses and more.

With this book, children will become familiar with the terms they’ll encounter as they’re learning to add. The images show fun examples of adding and introduce children to practical applications they can relate to.

Math manipulatives

As with the subtraction book, The Mission of Addition lends itself to actually working out the math problems with manipulatives. Many children learn better with hands-on activities.

As you read the book, let your child add with their favorite math manipulatives – LEGOs, Shopkins, Counting Bears. Whatever you have on hand will work just fine.

Extend the lesson: Older children can solve for the missing addend if you cover up one number in each problem as you read. This is also a great time to show students the correlation between addition and subtraction.

More Books that teach addition

We also enjoyed Math-for-All-Seasons and Each Orange Had 8 Slices when they were younger. Since then, I’ve discovered quite a few more books that will help your little ones grasp the concept of addition. You can click on each cover for more information.

Extend the lesson: Have your child write and solve the addition problems on paper as you come to them in the book that you’re reading? Create a few related addition word problems for your child to solve (on paper or with their manipulatives). Have your child create some addition word problems of their own. Then, they can act them out with their manipulatives.

AddiTION MINI-PACK

This mini-pack is the perfect addition to your addition lessons. It includes the following 7 activities:

• Addition anchor chart
• Roll and solve (graphing)
• Addition picture problems
• Addition practice
• Mystery picture
• Addition puzzle
• Addition clip cards

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