Students in first grade have been working with the equal symbol, and the greater than/less than symbol. They’ve created number stories and equations using the data they collected from counting the number of security cameras the stores in the neighborhood have. Some of these equations are simply true statements, and some have missing addends, or missing sums, depending on the story they created.
Here are a few of the equations that reflect the stories told by the students in class:
0 + 2 + 4 + 6 = 6 + 4 + 2
12 > 6 + 4
12 = 6 + ?
? = 6 + 4
12 = 6 + 4 + 2
By introducing equations using language such as “Is this statement true, or false?”, instead of concentrating solely on “answer-finding”, teachers are laying the foundation for algebraic thinking. A teacher might say, “What is the unknown number that makes this equation true?”, instead of saying, “What is the answer?” Notice, also, that several of the equations above that reflect students’ stories are simply true statements, and do not require any computation at all.
