Which Operation?

Many of our students are very competent math scholars. Depending on the group they work with, they are getting great practice in adding, subtracting, multiplying and/or dividing. My group, for instance, has become quite competent in adding and subtracting with "renaming", and most are now onto multiplication and division.

However, one thing that everyone can use practice with is figuring out which operation to use when faced with a word problem. We look for key words like "all together", or "how many were left". But there are tricky things too! For instance, a word problem may ask "how many MORE", and most children want to add (because of the word "more").

One fun way to practice is an on-line game called Operation Snowman. If you click on the link, it should take you right to the site. Younger children can be led to select which operation is needed, while older or more experienced students can be challenged to actually do the problem to get to the correct answer. As each answer is given, another piece of the snowman is built. We did one for practice today in my math class, and the children found it most satisfying to be rewarded with jaunty music and a fully built snowman. Try it!