New Math

Growing up, I was introduced to the amazingly witty Tom Lehrer. One of my favorite songs of his was called "New Math" it made fun of how the math taught in schools was so different from how the children's parents learned it years earlier. 

He was onto something!! I'm teaching math that I did not learn...and I love it. The kids understand it, I have never had children learn to regroup in addition and subtraction with so little confusion. 

But, seriously, new math: 4 methods to add and subtract - I bet you only know one! 

For addition and subtraction we first used the base ten method (place value blocks/pictures), number line using base ten jumps (hundreds, tens, or ones), expanded form, and then the "normal" way.  

Using the base ten method first, the kiddos visually saw what the numbers meant. This was great for regrouping and borrowing. No one ever said "I don't get it" when they had to "carry" or "borrow" - they literally made a new ten or broke a ten apart "aha!" was more common than "ugh!"

The expanded form method was tedious but so helpful. No tradition regrouping here, instead each number is broken apart into base ten, then you add or subtract, and then you put the number together. Some of the puzzle minded kids loved this method!

A couple days ago, I quickly made an answer sheet so I could easily mark their seat work. Using the place value/base ten method. It was amazing how it all made so much sense. Crossing out tens and ones. The past two years I haven't used these methods and there were so many groans as they practiced their work.

This year, I saw very few mistakes, and when they made a mistake, it was a careless error (too many tens or ones) than a lack of understanding.

So let's here it for "New Math" as Tom Lehrer said, "it's so simple, only a child could do it!"

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