With memorizing math facts, there are so many facts that students need to commit to memory. But with the commutative property of addition, students can automatically know twice as many facts. So it’s important to teach 1st grade and 2nd grade students the commutative property of addition.

Learning the commutative property is just one step students need on their way to math fact fluency. I have a free guide for students where I share 7 steps to help their students get to math fact mastery. Download the free guide for 1st and 2nd grade teachers here: The 7 Steps to Ensure Math Fact Fluency.

 

The Commutative Property of Addition

 

What is the commutative property of addition? It is when you can rearrange the addends in an addition equation and the sum stays the same. 

So let me give you some commutative property of addition examples. If 2+3=5, then 3+2=5. If 4+6=10, then 6+4=10. 

Knowing and applying this knowledge for math facts, can be so helpful to students. Students now have cut the amount of math fact equations to learn in half if they understand this concept! This is huge, especially for struggling students. But what’s the best way to teach this to students?

 

How to Teach the Commutative Property of Addition

 

For teaching this concept to students, I like to first make it very visual. I like to use counters and lay out a certain number of yellow and red counters. Then I ask students if there is an equation that matches the counters.

For example, if I lay out 2 red counters and 5 yellow. Student’s should come up with the equation 2+5=7. Then I ask, what if we switch around the red and yellow counters? What if I now put yellow on this side and red on this side? Is the answer different? No, it’s the same. So 5+2=7. Continue to practice this until students understand the pattern.

 

Then I like to make things less visual. I’ll write up a bunch of equations on the board. Then students have to come up with the answer and then the commutative pair.

 

I also like to take this a step further. I teach students the inverse operation as well. This is where students work with fact families. I help students see how addition and subtraction facts are related. I get them lots of practice with my Fact Family Triangles Task Cards. Find these here.

Then I like to set out my Fact Family Puzzles for students to work with. Find these here. I have a whole blog post going more in depth about how to teach fact families. Read it here.

Help students learn math facts faster by teaching them the commutative property of addition. This allows students to see patterns and relationships between math facts, and in return, help them to math fact mastery easier. For more help for helping students memorize addition and subtraction math facts download my free guide: The 7 Steps to Ensure Math Fact Fluency.