Compensation Strategy Worksheet

Students add two numbers where one addend sits near a round ten, hundred, or thousand, supporting the compensation strategy.

Students apply increasingly larger addition (single-digit through four-digit) across four differentiated pages.

Students complete an extension "Challenge" row that steps beyond the main problems on each page.

Assign pages by student readiness rather than in order — page 1 is single-digit and page 4 is three-to-four-digit, so the set differentiates without separate worksheets.

Model the compensation strategy on the board before handing out a page, since the file provides blank problems only and no worked example.

Use the three "Challenge" problems at the bottom of each page as an early-finisher extension rather than requiring them of every student.

Addition fluency — students solve 15 addition problems per page, progressing from single digits to four digits across the four pages.

Compensation strategy application — many pairs (19 + 16, 89 + 44, 998 + 904) sit near a round number, the structure the compensation strategy is designed to exploit.

Multi-digit place-value addition — page 3 and 4 problems (64 + 29, 913 + 697) require regrouping across the tens, hundreds and thousands places.