Column addition
Adding tens and ones with regrouping.
Column addition with regrouping is where place value becomes procedural. Ten ones are bundled into one ten and carried. Children who have physically bundled base-ten blocks (ages six to eight) understand the carry; children who have not, memorise a ritual.
Play this lesson with narration →Place value disks
Twenty-seven plus thirty-five. Let's build both numbers with place value disks. Twenty-seven is two tens and seven ones.
Add the ones
7 + 5 = 12. That's more than ten — regroup!
Seven ones plus five ones is twelve ones. But we can only have nine ones in the ones column. So we regroup ten ones into one ten. Two ones stay, one ten moves over.
Write it in columns
Line up the columns. Ones under ones, tens under tens. Add the ones: twelve. Write the two, carry the one. Then two plus three plus one is six. Sixty-two!
Your turn: 48 + 26
Eight plus six is fourteen — write four, carry one. Four plus two plus one is seven. Seventy-four.
What parents should watch for
- Writing the full two-digit answer inside the ones column ("13" under the ones).
- Carrying but then never adding the carried digit into the tens column.
- Misaligning digits so tens are added to ones.
- Adding left to right and then patching the carries in afterwards.
Land 39 · Regroup Ridge — 10 levels for ages 6–8 in the addition & subtraction strand.
Play Regroup Ridge in the Yaze Adventure Map — games built on this exact skill.
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