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Number line.
Ditto. And not just the traditional horizontal number line. Get out a thermometer (or a video of one) and let them see the mercury drop below zero.
To illustrate explanation above
Monopoly money paying fees.
Going to the store to buy something that costs 7 dollars but I only have 5. I ask my brother to borrow 10 dollars but he doesn't have any. I ask my dad but he only had 100 dollar bills so he loans me one of the bills and says to give my brother the change... etc. Looks wordy typed out but kids really seem to get it whenever you can make the connection to money.
HS math teacher here, who sees these kids still struggling years later.... I have mine count up, instead of down.
I'd think once they see they can be successful counting up to find the difference - and seeing how place values work going in that direction, they would then be able to count down to find the difference.
Try by explaining “constant difference”. The difference between 500-125 is the same as 499-124, just one less for each number. They can subtract without regrouping!
Be sure to show them how it works on a number line.
Yes! Ex. Subtracting from 3000. We have 0 in the ones so we need to borrow. Start underlining as you move from tens place value through thousands place value in your explanation. We have 0 in the tens column, so we can’t borrow from here. We have 0 in the hundreds column, so we can’t borrow from here. We have 3 in the thousands so we can borrow. Turn the line under the thousands, hundreds, and tens column into a box. The first 300 is in the box. We want to borrow one from 300. Cross out the box and ask what is one less than 300? 299 is written over the box. Move the borrowed one over to the ones column to show 10 ones. Subtract.