Addition Mental Maths for Class 1

The addition is a process of summing up two or more items together. Mental addition is used to find the sum of numbers in the simplest way.

This concept introduces addition tricks and mental maths strategies for addition for students.

In this learning concept, the students will learn to

• Apply the addition tricks for
• Use of addition by counting forward, addition by double the numbers and pairing the numbers that make 10.

Each concept is explained to class 1 maths students with illustrations and examples, and a concept map is given to summarize the idea. At the end of the page, two printable worksheets with solutions are attached for students to practice. Download the worksheets with solutions and assess your knowledge.

What Is Mental Math Addition?

We will learn some easy methods to do addition mentally.

Addition of 1-digit numbers

• Addition By Counting Forward
• Consider the first number and count the number of steps forward as equal to the second number.

Example:

Method

We will start from number 2 and count 5 steps forward.

So, we get:

• Addition by counting forward from a larger number
• Find out the larger number between addends and count forward from that number.

Example:

Method

• If we count from 3, we have to count 6 steps forward but if we count from 6, we have to count 3 steps forward.
• This method will make our addition faster.

So, we get:

• If Numbers Are the Same, Do Addition by Double the Number.
• If addends are the same, double that number.

Example:

Method

• In the above examples, we can easily count a table of given numbers up to 2. (i.e. 4 twos are 8, 3 twos are 6).
• Instead of adding the same number twice, we can multiply that number by 2. It will give the same answer.

So, we get:

• If Numbers Are Close, Do an Addition by Double the Number.
• If two numbers are close to each other, double the smaller number.

Example:

Method

• In the above example, 8 is close to 6, but 8 is 2 bigger than 6.
• So, first we add 6 + 6. Here we can double the number 6 and make addition easy.
• After getting 6 twos are 12, we can add 2. (Simply count 2 steps forward from 12)
• And we got our answer. This method will make addition faster.

So, we get:

• Adding Numbers by Pairing the Numbers That Make 10
• We use number bonds of 10.
• Following are the number bonds of 10.

Example:

Method

• In the above example, we know that adding 8 and 2 will get 10.
• So, we took away 2 from 5, and add it to 8. It will give us 10.
• If we take away 2 from 5, we will get 3.
• Now add 10 and 3, it will give us 13.
• Adding 10 plus 3 is easier than adding 8 plus 5.

So, we get:

• Addition of Any Number With 9
• We use the following number bond of 10:

1 and 9 = 10

Example:

Method

• In we have to add any number to 9, just remove 1 from that number and add it to 9.
• We get, 9 + 1 = 10.
• After removing 1 from the given number, it is easy to add the remaining number to 10. (Take the number that comes before number.)

So, we get:

Addition of Any 1-Digit Number With 10

• Addition of Any 1-Digit Number With 10.
• We use the fact that if we add any number to 0 we get that same number as answer.

Example:

Method

• In the above example, we have to add Ones place numbers.
• The number 10 has 0 in its Ones place.
• Adding any number to 0 gives us that number itself as an answer.
• So, to add any 1-digit number to 10, just replace the number 0 in 10 with that 1-digit number.

So, we get: