Help Students Understand Addition With Regrouping Using Sticky Notes

Make addition with regrouping simpler!

If you have laid a solid foundation in place value, your students are probably ready to take on addition with regrouping.  Kids can quickly get lost in what number to carry and where to write it.  Fortunately, there’s a teaching aid hiding right in your desk drawer…the versatile sticky note!

Here’s how it’s done:

1.  Write an addition problem requiring regrouping on the board or the projector.

2.  Show students how to add up the numbers in the ones column and write the answer on a sticky note.  In the beginning it is probably worth labeling the left side of the note “tens” and the right side “ones.”

3.   Use a pair of scissors to cut the note in half vertically.

4.   Put the “tens” half of the note on top of the tens column.  Put the “ones” half underneath the ones column.  Add up all the numbers in the tens column and there’s the answer!  Have students come up and try it, too!

Looking for other strategies for addition with regrouping?  Check out the open number line strategy.

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Hannah Braun

Hannah Braun is a former teacher with 8 years of experience in the classroom and a master's degree in early childhood education. She designs engaging, organized classroom resources for 1st-3rd grade teachers.