Associative Property of Addition Worksheets

About this resource

When you add three numbers, you can move the parentheses and the total stays the same. Associative property of addition, taught the way a first or second grader meets it: (2 + 4) + 3 and 2 + (4 + 3) both make 9. Match, circle, fill in, make ten first, count pictures, decide if a statement is true or false, and cut and glue. Every page has a big "My name" line, one short instruction, and answer boxes made for a child's handwriting. Untimed: no clock, no score on the page.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (31 pages: 16 student pages, 15 for you)

• 66 different sets of three numbers, totals from 6 to 20, all computed in code; each set appears on exactly one student page. Every set has three different numbers
• Group It: one set in pictures with the outline moved from the first two groups to the last two, plus a Your turn row (1 page)
• Match It: six problems and six lettered new groupings; the child writes the letter (12 problems, 2 pages)
• Circle It: circle the new grouping from three choices, then circle the one true statement from three (8 problems, 2 pages)
• Fill It In: add the parentheses first, write the missing number, or add both ways to the same total (14 problems, 3 pages)
• Make Ten: add the pair that makes 10 first, then find the pair yourself (9 problems, 2 pages)
• Show It: count drawn pictures grouped two ways (3 problems, 1 page)
• Make Your Own: pick three numbers, draw them and add them two ways (2 big panels, 1 page)
• True or False: a printed statement such as (6 + 1) + 8 = 6 + (1 + 8); circle true or false and fix the false ones (8 statements, 3 true and 5 false, 2 pages)
• Cut and Glue: six cards a page, 3 by 2, three straight cuts; new groupings glued to their expressions, then totals glued to their expressions (12 cards, 2 pages)
• 2 answer keys (34 rows and 32 rows), a tracker, a class grid, a team note, a home page with blank equations for the family to fill in, a filled example (an invented student), a phrase and strategy bank (17 starters), a binder cover and 6 divider tabs with a spine label
• Start Here, a how-it-works page and a "What's next" back page

Built For The Child, Not The Office

Every student page has a big "My name" line, one short instruction with a picture (a pencil, a circle or scissors), rounded boxes at least half an inch tall, and plenty of room. Fill It In C and Make Ten B have a box for every step, and Make Your Own has two big drawing panels. Everything for you (directions, answer keys, scoring) is on separate teacher pages.

Three Levels, Marked By Dots

One dot: starting (the parentheses are already placed, pictures are printed, the first sum has its own box). Two dots: building. Three dots: ready for more (find the missing number, decide true or false, add it two ways, pick your own numbers). The dots are the only level code, so children at one table are not comparing papers.

Every Item Is Computed

Every answer, every picture, every wrong choice and every row of both answer keys is read from the same three numbers that draw the page. There is no second, hand-typed key. Where an answer sits (the letter in a match, the choice to circle, true or false, the card under a box) is placed by a seeded shuffle that rejects any order a child could guess. On Circle It A one choice keeps the same parentheses and one changes a number, so a child who is guessing finds out.

Type In, Or Print

The name and date lines, every answer box, the tracker, class grid, team note and home page are type-in fields in any PDF reader; the pictures and cut cards are always printed. Every page also prints clean in black and white. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides, Google Docs or PowerPoint file.

Who This Is For

First and second grade teachers, special education and resource room teachers, interventionists, and anyone who needs regrouping practice at more than one level in one file, with the tracking and family pages already made.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

An untimed practice set for moving the parentheses when adding three numbers, with the record-keeping around it. It is not a timed fluency probe or a goal page, not a full math curriculum, and not a claim about any student's age, grade level or rate of progress. No page swaps the order of the numbers (that is the commutative property, a separate product). Subtraction is not in this file.

Also From Bright Path Sped

Commutative Property of Addition Worksheets (the other property), Addition to 20 Cut and Paste, 3 Levels (more addition to 20), Number Bonds to 10 Cut and Paste, 3 Levels (the pairs that make ten), and Addition Within 20 Progress Monitoring Probes (the data side).