Column Addition & Subtraction
Learners use beans on notebook boxes to join, separate, and balance small numbers.
Column Addition & Subtraction
Learners use beans on notebook boxes to join, separate, and balance small numbers. Today they use the model to explain number operations in their own words.
Column Addition & Subtraction illustration
Learners use beans on notebook boxes to join, separate, and balance small numbers.
Kofi counts 34 oranges and adds 25 more. How many oranges are there?
- Place the first amount on the ten-frame and count it aloud.
- Add the next amount, then count all the filled boxes to get 59.
Struggle support
Rescue lab
Column Addition & Subtraction rescue model
A learner uses beans on notebook boxes before writing an addition, subtraction, or equality sentence.
Draw ten boxes and fill only the boxes that match the counted objects.
Move real beans into notebook boxes and count each filled box aloud.
Filled boxes stand for counted objects; empty boxes are not counted unless needed.
Circle the filled boxes in parts to show joining, separating, or equality.
The picture shows which boxes belong to each part of the number sentence.
Write the matching addition, subtraction, or equality sentence.
6 + 3 = 9 or 9 - 3 = 6 matches the filled boxes.
The learner counts empty boxes as part of the total.
Ask the learner to rebuild the model slowly and say what each part means.
Count only the filled boxes, then match the count to the written number sentence.
The learner gives an answer without connecting it to the objects.
Cover the written answer and ask the learner to point to the matching part of the model.
Return to the concrete objects, then redraw the same idea before writing the answer again.
Build one number sentence with beans, then explain which boxes prove the answer.