Learning to subtract and regroup when there are zeros in the number can be difficult for many students. In the problem 400 subtract 277 we see that the two zeros can confuse kids when they have to regroup. After a request from an awesome teacher I finally finished animating the video to help kids with this type of problem.
While I am no expert on this subject I did do some research and I found countless rhymes and songs to help you know how to regroup but I am realizing that these will not always be the most helpful. Do not misunderstand me when I say that because I think they are amazing tools to help kids remember what to do but I am finding that kids struggle understanding what to do because they are forgetting the place value and how it works.
So with this video I decided I would teach how to regroup with zeros not just with the numbers but having it taught with the place value house and the place value blocks alongside. This should help kids to recognize that if you cannot subtract in the ones column and look to the tens column you will see another empty room and know that you will need to go to the next place value. Once you borrow a hundred kids can see that they did not just borrow a ten from the hundreds place but they borrowed ten tens. Having something like this I believe will be helpful for all kids to know what is really going on and to learn the why behind it rather than just a song or rhyme.
We hope to have the video out by Monday or Tuesday at the latest of next week. Enjoy the videos and keep learning with us.