Plainville Public Schools

In this unit, students deepen their understanding of addition and subtraction within 10, and extend what they know about organizing objects into categories and representing the quantities.

In kindergarten, students solved addition and subtraction word problems within 10 using objects and drawings. They learned about Put-Together, Result-Unknown problems and worked toward fluency with sums and differences within 5.

The activities in this unit reinforce these understandings and initiate the year-long work of developing fluency with sums and differences within 10. Some problems involve finding sums greater than 10, a skill to be honed throughout the course and with the support of tools such as connecting cubes.

Students also build on the work in kindergarten as they engage with data. Previously, they sorted objects into given categories such as size or shape.  Here, students use drawings, symbols, tally marks, and numbers to represent categorical data. They go further by choosing their own categories, interpreting representations with up to three categories, and asking and answering questions about the data.

This opening unit also offers teachers opportunities to introduce mathematical routines and structures for centers, and to develop a shared understanding of what it means to do math and to be a part of a mathematical community.

Throughout the unit

Students are introduced to the structure of centers that will be used throughout the year. Both warm-ups and centers in this unit allow opportunities for students to add and subtract 1 or 2 to encourage students to use counting on or the number sequence to add and subtract.