Math Interventions for Elementary

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 If your students are still counting from one instead of counting on, this video is for you.

We walk through exactly how to move struggling learners — and your high flyers — toward the counting on strategy for addition. Whether you're working in a Tier 1 classroom, pulling a small Tier 2 group, or doing intensive Tier 3 intervention, these techniques are designed to be scaffolded to meet any learner where they are — within an RTI or MTSS framework.

Ready to go deeper? Our Primary Numeracy Intervention Program gives you the full system — and you can try part of it completely free. [See the Program →]

 Still seeing students count every single object from one? This video shows you exactly how to break that habit.

We walk through how to teach the counting on strategy — guiding students to start from the larger addend instead of counting all over again from one. It's one of the highest-leverage shifts you can make for early addition, and we show you how to make it stick even for your most struggling learners.

Want the complete system behind this strategy? Try our Primary Numeracy Intervention Program — part of it is completely free, no strings attached. [See the Program →]

 Make Ten is one of the most powerful addition strategies you can teach — and most students are ready for it in first grade.

This video walks you through exactly how to teach it: starting with hands-on materials your students can touch and manipulate, then gradually moving toward mental computation. Along the way, students build the number decomposition skills they need to compose a ten and build from it confidently — a foundational piece of base ten thinking that pays off for years.

Works for Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 — and we show you how to adjust it for each.

Strategy cards and downloadable materials are available below, along with our accompanying training webinar.

Want the full intervention system? Try our Primary Numeracy Intervention Program — part of it is free, no commitment needed. [See the Program →]

 If your students are stuck on basic addition facts within 20, the Doubles Strategy is one of the fastest ways to get them unstuck.

Instead of counting up from one, students learn to decompose one number to make a double with the other — so 9 + 8 becomes 8 + 8 plus one more. It's a mental shortcut that clicks quickly, especially when introduced with a twenty frame as a visual anchor.

We walk you through the hands-on introduction phase step by step — because when students can touch and see the strategy first, it transfers to mental math much faster.

Strategy cards for easy reference are available for download below, along with our training webinar for additional materials and support.

Want the complete system behind strategies like this one? Try our Primary Numeracy Intervention Program — part of it is completely free. [See the Program →]

 Before you teach the standard algorithm for addition and subtraction, teach this.

The Splitting Strategy bridges place value understanding and addition skills — making it one of the most natural next steps in a student's math progression. Instead of jumping straight to the formal algorithm, students learn to split numbers by place value and recombine them, building the kind of number sense that makes the algorithm actually make sense when they get there.

It works across Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 within both RTI and MTSS frameworks — and the arrow cards needed to introduce it hands-on are available for download below.

Our training webinar walks you through how to use it in practice, with additional materials to support your students.

Want the full progression of strategies like this one, organized into a complete intervention system? Try our Primary Numeracy Intervention Program — part of it is free. [See the Program →]

 The Jumping Strategy turns a number line into one of the most powerful tools in your intervention toolkit.

Before students are ready for this strategy, they need a basic understanding of place value and split counting — so if you've been teaching those foundations, this is the natural next step. Once they're ready, the number line gives them a concrete, visual way to jump through numbers in chunks rather than counting one by one.

It's a strategy that builds real number sense — the kind that sticks.

Additional materials and a full walkthrough are available in our training webinar below.

Want the complete progression — from counting strategies all the way through to jumping and beyond? Our Primary Numeracy Intervention Program lays it all out, and part of it is completely free. [See the Program →]