Seriously, this is one of the trickiest skills to teach and there are so many great ideas out there on HOW to teach it.  One of those great ideas came from the Magic of Math by Amy and Hope.  My kids really enjoyed the process and it was a great activity to do between using the base 10 blocks and good ole’ fashion pencil paper regrouping.

I began the math lesson by having a regrouping problem written large on easel paper.  Of course, I don’t have a picture of that!!!  I used the SUPER LARGE sticky note to demonstrate how to total the ones and write it on a sticky note.   I then cut the sticky note in half and moved the numbers in the ones spot under the ones and the number in the tens spot over the tens.  I did this demonstration several more times with a variety of 2 digit regrouping problems.

Next, I broke the students into groups of 2.  Each pair got a sheet of easel paper, smelly markers and a super duper big sticky note.  I told the kids to come up with their own math problem and solve it using the sticky note method.   They LOVED it and were super engaged the whole time.   I had them make a “teaching” video in Seesaw to share their new strategy with their families.

You can easily transfer this skill to work mats and sticky notes in a center or small group.