Addition Strategies Teaching Resources

Make teaching addition strategies easier this school year with worksheets, printables, maths games, and more created by primary teachers for primary teachers. Using strategies in maths teaches students to think flexibly about numbers and will help them develop automaticity.

This collection contains Australian V9 curriculum-aligned resources that are easy to edit so you can easily differentiate resources for your individual students!

Has it been a while since you taught maths, or at least this particular part of the curriculum? Read on for a primer from our teacher team!

What Are Addition Strategies?

The term addition strategies refers to the  different methods and techniques that can be used by our students to solve addition problems. These strategies are an important part of developing fluency and building a deeper conceptual understanding — not to mention more efficient than counting as students flex their maths muscles!

6 Addition Strategy Examples That Help Primary Students Build Fluency

Looking for examples of some of the addition strategies that can help put your students on the path to a more procedural model? Here are a few that can be used side by side:

Counting On

This strategy involves starting with the larger number in a maths problem and counting on from there.

Counting On Example — If students are looking to find the sum of 7 + 3, they would start with 7 and count on 3 more (8, 9, 10).

Split Addition Strategy

Using the split addition strategy can be helpful when adding larger numbers. To use it, students will draw on their place value skills, breaking down numbers into their individual digits and adding them one column at a time, starting with the ones place, then the tens place, etc.

Split Addition Strategy Example — A student might want to add 37 and 48. To do this, they would follow three steps.

Step 1: Split the numbers based on place value: 37 = 30 + 7 48 = 40 + 8

Step 2: Add the corresponding parts separately: 30 + 40 = 70 7 + 8 = 15

Step 3: Combine the results: 70 + 15 = 85

Making 10

Finding ways to make one of the numbers a multiple of 10 and then adding the remaining number is called ' making 10' and can help early maths students.

Making 10 Strategy Example — If a student wants to find the sum of 7 + 4, they could make 7 into 10 by adding 3 and having 1 left to add on.

Doubles

The doubles strategy for addition is based on the fact that adding a number to itself is the same as doubling that number.

Doubles Strategy Example —  To add 8 + 7, one can think of it as 7 + 7 (which equals 14) and then add one more to get 8 + 7 = 15.

Number Bonds

This addition strategy involves breaking the problem down into smaller parts that can be added together.

Number Bonds Strategy Example — To find the sum of 7 + 3, you could think of the problem as (5 + 2) + 3.

Maths Mentals

Rounding, front-end estimation and compensation can all help students get better at addition!