This week in math class we are learning about missing addends, and the students are super excited! I started my lesson today by reviewing the addition properties. Then, I gave students a word problem that had the start and the result but the change was unknown. I had students discuss how they would solve the problem given since their was a missing addend. They gave examples like: addition, open number line and doing the inverse operation.

After that, I taught students how to play the game Salute. In this game, students work in groups of three. Each group has a deck of playing cards (remove all cards that are not numbers). Then the dealer places the stack of cards on the floor and gives the other players one card each. The players must not look at their own card because their card will be the missing addend. When the dealer says "salute", the two players pick up their cards and place them on their forehead with the number facing out. Then the dealer says the total of the two cards. Each player must look at the others person's number to figure out what card they have.
My students LOVED this game and it really helped make missing addends concrete. I differentiated this game by having four people in a group (one dealer and three players). Tomorrow we are going to do the same game, but with number cards up to 100. I stopped by Lowes last night and grabbed a bunch of those paint sample cards to make this game. I asked the cashier at the register if he minded and he said, "They are free take as many as you need". Score!