Homework on the equal sign as a balance. After a scale picture and a callout defining = as 'the same as', students judge five equations as true or false, including 8 = 10 - 3 and 5 + 2 = 3 + 4, fill missing numbers into balances like 4 + 4 = 3 + ______, and fix a tilted scale holding 6 blocks on one side and 2 on the other. The last line asks them to write their own balanced equation with addition on both sides.
1.OA.7
“Understand the meaning of the equal sign, and determine if equations involving addition and subtraction are true or false.”
Part 1 includes the forms that expose equal-sign misreading: the bare 6 = 6 and the reversed 8 = 10 - 3.
1.OA.8
“Determine the unknown whole number in an addition or subtraction equation relating three whole numbers.”
Part 2 moves the unknown through every position, including after the equal sign in 8 = 10 - ______.
Five equations with tick boxes: 6 = 6, 4 + 3 = 7, 8 = 10 - 3, 5 + 2 = 3 + 4 and 6 + 1 = 4 + 2. The key explains each, noting that 10 - 3 is 7, not 8.
Five balance equations with one blank each, from 5 + ______ = 9 to 2 + 5 = 9 - ______.
A picture shows a scale tilted down under 6 blocks against 2. Students complete 6 = 2 + ______, then invent their own equation in the frame ______ + ______ = ______ + ______.
Set after the pan-balance lesson
The tilted-scale picture in Part 3 continues whatever you did with real weights in class, so send it home the same day.
Read the wrong answers
A student who marks 8 = 10 - 3 false because 'the answer is on the wrong side' has told you exactly what to reteach.
Share question 12
Collect the write-your-own equations and read a few aloud. Hearing 3 + 4 = 5 + 2 from a peer lands differently than from the board.
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