Using Story Problems and Beans to Teach Addition

I would like to show you how I would teach the students in my classroom to add using objects. To begin with, we are going to tell them a story that we have added numbers in. All of this is done orally because it’s just talking right now. I’d say, “Boys and girls, I have four candy bars and my mom comes home from the store with one more candy bar. How many candy bars do I have now? Well, today these beans are going to be our candy bars alright?” So, this looks like a lot of candy bars. But, we’re going to put them right here because in our story I only have four. Count with me one, two, three, four. Boys and girls, I have four candy bars my mom goes to the store and she brings me home one more candy bar, I add it. Now, how many candy bars do I have? Do I have more candy bars than I did before? Or, do I have less? Did my group get bigger? Or, smaller? Let’s count and find out. Count with me, one, two, three, four, five. How many candy bars do I have now? Boys and girls, I have five and my group got larger. Nice job. Let’s try again. Boys and girls, I have a cute little dog at home named Tex. And, he likes dog treats. So, I went to the store and I got him three dog treats. Our beans are dog treats remember. One, two, three. My next-door neighbor came over and brought him two more. He’s a lucky little dog. Let’s add two more, one, two. My dog has lots of treats now. Does he have more treats, or less treats than he did before? Let’s count and find out, one, two, three, four, five. He has five treats. He has more, our group got larger. Nice job. Now boys and girls, I love flowers. They’re beautiful, so I have a flower garden. I planted five beautiful, lovely smelling flowers in my garden. Let’s put five flowers in our garden, one, two, three, four, five. They were so beautiful that I thought I needed to add three more. Let’s add three more, one, two, three. Boys and girls, do I have more flowers in my garden than I did before? Let’s count and find out. Count with me, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Nice job boys and girls. I now have eight lovely flowers in my garden. And that is one way that I teach adding using objects to the students in my classroom.