Flexible Minds

I spent some time in a 4th grade classroom recently and was BLOWN AWAY by how flexibly the students were able to think of a simple subtraction problem. The kids were asked to subtract 2,756 from 6,034. They worked in partners and were challenged to come up with as many varied approaches as possible. Would you believe they came up with SIX DIFFERENT WAYS? Holy smokes! Back when I was in school, there was only one method and it was the standard algorithm. No wonder we all fell asleep in class. Take a look at the pictures to get an idea of the varied ways students approached this problem.

1. Base ten blocks/place value strategy
2. Negatives method
3. Standard Algorithm
4/5. Negatives method AND expanded form subtraction
6. Number line strategy