Ways to Make Subtraction with Regrouping Less Stressful

Hey y'all! Thanks for hopping over! Don't forget to enter to win the $100 TPT Gift Card at the bottom of this post! I want to tell you about what I like to do when I teach subtraction with regrouping. Subtraction with regrouping makes me nervous. It worries me to see the look on my students' faces when they are completely confused the first time I introduce subtraction with regrouping. Last year, I didn't feel the students truly caught on for over a week of practice. I have a strategy this year, and my kids are going to rock!

This year, I jumped right in. I showed the kids how to regroup even before we watched the math video! (We use EnVision and it gives us a math video for each lesson.) I drew tens and ones and showed them why we had to regroup. Then we went into the video. The kids weren't near as confused as they were last year after the video. It was a total success! We use the BBBB method!

It's super funny to say and the kids really get a kick out of the word bottom, oh 7 year olds....Ha! I show them this funny YouTube video after a couple of days of regrouping practice and using BBBB during practice.

The characters talk weird and look funny. The kids think it's hilarious and I'll have to admit, I do too! It makes me laugh!!

We got out the base ten blocks for more practice. I wrote the problem on the board, and the students would use their white board and cubes. We did this as a whole class while I walked around. When we went into our {math groups}, I got the cubes out to work with the students were were still having a hard time.

I grabbed this page from my friend Angie at {Lucky Little Learners}. She has an amazing post about regrouping, by the way! The kids LOVED being able to write on the counter while we worked on regrouping. We started with showing only the 31 cubes. Then we broke it down and regrouped the cubes. The marker did give me a little trouble coming off, but after a few scrubs with a Lysol wipe, it's as good as new!

I got the {dice in dice} out and practiced regrouping too. I want to use as many manipulatives as possible to help students find a way to make regrouping click. Once students seem to understand why we regroup, then we practice with just the numbers.

I like to have students highlight the ones place for a few problems so they know to start with the ones then do the tens. They love having a chance to "play" with their highlighters during math!

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