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Lesson Plan

Mr. Alligator Can't Catch Me!

Students can use their play skills to demonstrate subtraction. In this lesson, your students will use a familiar rhyme to practice subtraction.
Need extra help for EL students? Try the All About Subtraction pre-lesson.
Grade:
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Need extra help for EL students? Try the All About Subtraction pre-lesson.

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to represent subtraction by manipulating up to 5 objects.

Introduction

(5 minutes)
  • Tell your students that today they will be practicing subtraction, or taking away.
  • Show students the video Five Little Monkeys Swinging from a Tree.
  • Encourage students to sing along and use their fingers to practice along with the video.

Beginning

  • Ask students to think about the word "subtraction" and what it might mean. Tell students that it means to take away.
  • Allow students to share their understanding of subtraction in their home language (L1) if possible.
  • Review numbers 1–10.

Intermediate

  • Display an addition equation and ask students to think about what addition means (to put things together) and how that is different from subtraction.
  • Define subtraction as taking an amount away from something.