Mental math is not be a hard concept to understand. Do the math in your head. For me, somewhere between understanding that statement and doing the math in my head, my brain has a difficult time. Mental math does not come easily for everyone but in our text book, Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers, they share some basic techniques that make mental math a little easier to do.
The first one is counting on. When you count on you can count using either 1, 2, 3, etc. or 10, 20, 30, etc. This is very basic mental math that is vital for young students to understand and start practicing so that they can build on basic concepts like this one and do more complex mental math. Handy when adding, counting on is used like this...
Example: 68 + 50
50 = 5 - 10s
So starting at 68, add five 10s.
68, 78, 88, 98, 108, 118.
68 + 50 = 118
The second one is breaking apart numbers. This is very useful in addition and subtraction. When adding (or subtracting) multiple digit numbers, students can separate the numbers into easier, smaller, or more reasonable parts and act on them then.
Example: 344 + 652
300 + 40 + 4
+ 600 + 50 + 2
900 + 90 + 6 = 996
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