Addition Tables

Thursday, I was working with a student teacher who had difficulty helping a small group of her students with addition. The problem was the students, who understood the concept of addition, needed more practice. Addition is one of the first math skills a child needs to learn. In many ways, it is the basic operation of arithmetic. At its simplest level, addition combines two numbers to create a third number. A helpful approach for young children is to use the addition tables: the ones table, the twos table, and so on. To help solve this problem, the teacher uses FlinkMake to create an interactive worksheet on the computer. It takes only minutes to enter a few grids with over fifty problems.


The worksheet is fun and engaging, with characters the children can appreciate. Each screen has an addition grid. Children add a number from the column heads and a number from the row heads and enter their answer in the intersecting white box. The heads are set up to mimic the addition tables, reinforcing them as an aid to beginning addition. The children get a huge number of problems without feeling overwhelmed because of the visual nature of the worksheet. The teacher can make grids in minutes, providing the children with a limitless number of addition problems.

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