Basic Math Operations

Addition is an operation that combines two numbers together.
Let's understand together what addition means.
Dana has $2$ balls and Elad has $3$ balls.
If we add all the balls together, both Dana's and Elad's, we'll get $5$ balls.

The addition operation is marked with a $+$ plus
When we are presented with an addition exercise like this example
$3+2=$
We know that we need to add up all the balls together.
Note - in addition exercises, the commutative law applies. We can switch the positions of the numbers and still obtain the same result.

And now let's practice:
$9+1=$
Solution: The $+$ sign appears, so we need to add $9$ and $1$.
If we add $1$ to $9$ we obtain: $10$
$9+1=10$

Subtraction between two numbers is an operation that reduces - subtracts a number from the first number.
Let's better understand the subtraction operation:
Tamar has $6$ rubber bands. Tamar gave one rubber band to her little sister Gaia. How many rubber bands does Tamar have left?

$6-1=5$
If Tamar gave 1 hair tie $1$ to Gaia and initially had $6$, now she has $5$ hair ties.
The subtraction operation subtracts a number from the first number.
When we have an exercise like this for example:
$7-3=$
We read it from left to right, $7$ minus $3$.
We subtract the $3$ from seven and obtain $4$.

Now let's practice:
$8-2=$
We'll read the exercise as $8$ minus $2$. We need to subtract $2$ from the number $8$ as seen below:
$8-2=6$

Another exercise:
$12-4=$
$12$ minus $4$, subtract $4$ from the number $12$ and we obtain:
$12-4=8$

Multiplication is an operation that saves time and helps solve exercises quickly and simply!
The multiplication operation is marked with $×$
A multiplication exercise that looks like this for example:
$5×4=$
We read it as $5$ times $4$.

Note - in multiplication exercises, the commutative property applies. We can switch the positions of the numbers and still obtain the same result.

Let's better understand the meaning of multiplication.
We have $4$ cups and in each cup there are $3$ pencils. How many pencils are there in total?

Let's multiply $4$ cups times $3$ pencils in each cup to obtain the total number of pencils we have.
$4×3=12$
In total we have $12$ pencils.
Instead of adding and counting all the pencils, we can instead perform a multiplication which saves us a lot of time.
This means that in cases where we have several groups with the same number of items in each group, we can use multiplication.

Important tip!
In order to easily solve multiplication exercises without any effort, we highly recommend learning the multiplication table well! The multiplication table contains all possible solutions for multiplication exercises up to $10×10$!
Trust us, if you know the multiplication table well, it will help you a lot in math and in your future in general!

Print it now and try to memorize it.

And now let's practice!
$2×5=$
In this exercise we need to ask what the value of $2$ will be when repeated $5$ times.
Which means:
$2+2+2+2+2=$
The answer is $10$ therefore
$2×5=10$

Division is an operation that divides something into equal-sized groups.
The division operation looks like this $:$ like a colon
and when there is a division problem, for example $4:2=$
we read it as $4$ divided by $2$.
We need to divide the $4$ into $2$ equal groups. The result is actually how much will be in each group if we divide $4$ into $2$ equal groups. The answer is $2$.
Let's better understand what division is.
If we have $8$ apples and $4$ children and we want to divide them equally among each child, how many apples will each child get?
We'll solve this question using a division problem.
$8:4=2$
If we divide the apples equally among each child, each child will get $2$ apples and that's the result.