npm17 numbers 15 & 16

April 15

A Strategy You Can Count On

  for Joey

First I had to learn

what a strategy is.

You can have a strategy for a lot of things:

doing a cartwheel (stretch as high as you can

before you start),

carrying your lunch tray (lay your bottle of milk

on its side),

keeping b and d straight (thumbs up

for b and d!).

So this strategy is my favorite. My dad taught me.

It works for addition AND subtraction. 

You just COUNT ON.

If the problem is 4 + 9,

I like to start with the bigger number,

so I think “9” and then I count on 4 more,

one finger for each number, and I say “10, 11, 12”

and I land on 13. See?

If the problem is 13 – 4, I have to start

with the smaller number, so I think “4”

and then I count on until I get to 13,

one finger for each number,

“5, 6, 7, 8, 9.10, 11,12, 13,”

and how many fingers is that?  It’s 9,

so the answer is 9.

And if the problem is 4 + __ = 13

that works the same way,

and if the problem is __ - 4 = 9

it seems like it should work the same way

but 5 doesn’t make sense, so I’m still figuring that out.

Another thing that doesn’t make sense

is why I don’t get P for Proficient

when I use my COUNT ON strategy,

because I’m really good at it.

draft ©HM 2017

April 16

My teacher says you can't take
a bigger number from a smaller one.
She's wrong.
You just have to be hero enough
to make the leap to less than zero.