Use this lesson to introduce composing and decomposing as part of your students’ addition and subtraction toolkits.

Why make things harder on ourselves? Teach your students to decompose numbers to make math easier! Use this as a stand alone lesson or a pre-lesson for Decompose to Multiply: 6, 7, 8, and 9.

Roll some dice to introduce the early concepts of associative and commutative properties in addition by composing and decomposing 10. Worksheets and a quiz are included!

Students will love composing shapes using tangrams in this hands-on lesson! Use this plan alone or as a support lesson plan for the Tangrams: An Ancient Chinese Puzzle lesson plan.

Start a dialogue around area models! In this lesson, encourage students to ask questions as they multiply using area models. Use this lesson on its own or as support to the lesson Area Models and Multiplication.

It’s magic! In this lesson, students will “magically” move shapes together to form new shapes. Clay and toothpicks equal hands-on fun! Tangram challenges are provided for those students who need that little extra challenge.

Help your students subtract with confidence by sharing two different strategies. Use this lesson to build on students’ understanding of subtraction and to evaluate this key skill.