Add Em Up Two Step Equations Activity

Your students will enjoy this free printable Add Em Up Two Step Equations Activity which is both engaging and self-checking.

I originally created this activity to be featured in the Winter 2023 issue of the Oklahoma Council of Teachers of Mathematics newsletter. But I decided I wanted to share it with you as well!

What is an Add Em Up Activity?

In an Add Em Up Activity, students are provided with four problems to solve. These four problems are laid out in a 2 x 2 grid with a circle at the center.

Students must work all four problems and find the sum of their four answers. We call this the “Add Em Up” step.

There are two different approaches for this activity. You can provide students with the template that tells them the sum that their answers should add up to. This makes the activity self-checking.

Or, you can give students the template with a blank circle in the center. Students must then find the sum of their four answers, write it in the circle, and bring the activity to you to verify the correctness of their sum.

Two Step Equations Activity

For the Two Step Equations Add Em Up Activity, students are given four 2-step equations to solve. If students solve the four equation problems correctly, the sum of their four answers should be -17.

This activity is meant to only take 5-10 minutes of class. It would make a great exit ticket activity or a “let’s see what you remember from yesterday” opening activity.

You could also assign it as a short homework assignment.

More Add Em Up Activities

I have created Add Em Up activities for other math topics as well that you might be interested in checking out like my angles in polygons activity, my non-standard operations activity or my binomial expansion activity.