Finding the Unknown Number (in Addition)

: Mr. Squeaks and Imani are gathering food for winter hibernation, where they will stay in the cave for a long time. Mr. Squeaks found seeds first. He started with a pile of ten seeds, but now he has fourteen! How many seeds did Mr. Squeaks add? Let's figure it out by ... : "Finding the Unknown Number (in Addition)." Usually, we add one part plus another part to find the whole. We also sometimes call the parts addends, and the whole, sum. But, what happens when you don't know one of the parts? We can STILL use the parts, the whole, and addition to help us. First, set up the addition equation using the addition sign. Next, fill in the numbers we KNOW. Mr. Squeaks started with ten seeds, so write ten for the first part. He ended with fourteen seeds, so write fourteen for the whole. We can put a question mark in the space of the number we don't know. Then, count up from part one until you reach the whole. So, we will count from ten to fourteen. Count with me! Ten (...) eleven (...) twelve (...) thirteen (...) FOURTEEN(...) The amount of numbers we counted is the missing part! How many numbers are between ten and fourteen? Four. That means that ten plus FOUR equals fourteen... ... and Mr. Squeaks added four more seeds! Next, Mr. Squeaks added to his mushroom pile! If Mr. Squeaks started with eight mushrooms and ended with thirteen, how many did he add? Start by writing an equation. Where do we put the number of mushrooms Mr. Squeaks started with? We put eight, in the first part. We don't know how many Mr. Squeaks added yet, so we can put in a question mark to represent the missing part. We know the whole is thirteen, so we put that after the equal sign for the sum. Next count up from eight to thirteen. Count with me! eight (...) nine (...) ten (...) eleven (...) twelve (...) THIRTEEN. How many numbers did we count? We counted up five, so Mr. Squeaks added five mushrooms to his pile! Finally Mr. Squeaks found carrots for his pile. Mr. Squeaks started with seven carrots when he was gathering them, but now he has sixteen! How many carrots did Mr. Squeaks add to his pile? Remember, first write the equation. Where do the numbers go? We put seven in the first part and sixteen in the whole. Then, count up from seven to sixteen. Try it on your own! How many numbers did you count? When counting from seven to sixteen, we count NINE numbers. Let's review! Today we learned how to find the missing number in addition. First, write an equation Next, write in the numbers you know and put a question mark for the one you don't. Then, count up from part one until you reach the whole. Now, I wonder how hibernation prep is going. It looks like Mr. Squeaks AND Imani have had a lot to eat!