Greedy Numbers Math Strategy for Adding 7, 8, 9

In our homeschool, my first grader is working on learning his math facts. Honestly, I think not knowing his math facts is making him feel frustrated with math in general. From the teacher end, I do not enjoy dragging him through math each day. It is not a fun process for either of us lately.

Math facts are sucking the life out of our math time - and they show up EVERY DAY in EVERY LESSON in some shape or form! Learning basic addition is, of course, so very important! I think of this as a hurdle for us to cross together. We are going to do it and as a result, he will end up with a very good grasp of addition! That is the goal. If we can do it without drudgery, even better!!!

That said, in my search for ways to make learning math facts easier, I stumbled upon the Math Mammoth YouTube channel. Her trick for adding with 8 and 9 sparked the idea for the "Greedy Numbers". Greedy Numbers is a strategy to help students learn how to add with 7, 8, and 9. The Greedy Numbers want to be 10! They are just a few numbers away.

We tried this a bit during our math time on Wednesday, and he seemed to have an easier time figuring out the problems. Anything to help my little guy learn math without a struggle. My philosophy is WHATEVER WORKS!

Greedy Numbers

Greedy Numbers Set
(shown here printed 2 per page because we are going to glue these pages in Everett's math notebook,
but each sheet can be printed individually as well).

This set includes:
Greedy numbers Bookmarks in color and in black and white
3 posters with poems introducing the greedy numbers
3 worksheets for practicing this strategy

Thanks for taking a minute to see what we are up to this week!
Dina