A small group of 2nd graders has been working on adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers with regrouping. We started by reviewing what a two-digit number is and how important the “place” is for the digit. How different a 24 and a 42 can be even though they have the same digits! We used our blocks to count out numbers and then added them to our neighbor’s numbers. All of the sudden we had too many ones blocks and had to trade for tens. As everyone practiced and worked on mastering this skill, we moved on to subtracting from two-digit numbers. And not just any two-digit numbers, numbers that didn’t have enough ones to subtract from! Back to the bank to trade in a ten for more ones. This was a tricky process for some and there is still a lot of practice happening to help us grasp this concept and move on to subtracting from numbers with a zero in the ones place and higher 3-digit numbers. As we continue to practice our block soup problems, we have also started to explore word problems and figuring out what a problem wants us to do. We’re learning how to read the problem and decide how to represent the problem whether it’s with pictures, words, numbers or objects. We then have to explain our idea to our classmates and compare our answers.