Students in the primary grades learn to flexibly work with numbers, and they learn how the operations of addition and subtraction work. They do this by learning to compose and decompose numbers and by solving addition and subtraction problems. The progression of learning in the standards supports the development of understanding and can be used to identify potential areas of unfinished learning. The coherence map provides further support in this area by identifying connections to prior and future learning. The progressions enable teachers to support students' unfinished learning by providing the time and space students need to practice these important, foundational skills.

Learning stations for operations and algebraic thinking (OA) might focus on the following areas.

Kindergarten -
- Understanding addition as putting together and adding to and subtraction as taking apart and taking from
- Decomposing numbers to 10
- Pairs of numbers that make 10
- Fluency: Add/subtract within 5

First Grade - 
- Solving addition and subtraction word problems within 20
- Applying properties of operations to add and subtract, and understanding the relationship between addition and subtraction
- Using strategies to add and subtract: counting on, making 10, using the relationship between addition and subtraction, and decomposing numbers to make easier or known facts
- Understanding the equal sign
- Fluency: Add/subtract within 10

Second Grade - 
- Solving one- and two-step word problems to 100
- Using mental math to fluently add and subtract within 20
- Odd and even numbers
- (Later in the year) Using addition to figure out the number of items in arrays
- Fluency: Single-digit sums and differences (memory) and add/subtract within 100 (paper and pencil)

Operations and Algebraic Thinking Stations

Click on the pictures below to see math stations aligned to the areas of OA.