Currently volunteering in an intervention class for sixth graders. The teacher is enthusiastic and smart, I am learning a lot from her. Right now they are covering basic algebraic techniques for solving equations. To drive the point home to the kids, she started off with two simple rules:
1) Letters are loners
2) Anything you do to one side of the equation you do to the other
That really is all there is to it, when teaching the basics of algebra. You want one side of the equation to have a single instance of a variable with no coefficient (letters are loners), and the other side to have no constant.
Many kids don't get the "what you do to one side you have to do to the other" thing right off the bat but, as with many math concepts, it sticks with them better if you anthropomorphize it. In this case, she says that if you do something to one side the other side "gets jealous". I tried this out on my son and at first he took it too literally, saying "why would one side always want what the other side has"? So I explained that sides of the equation are like his little sister--if she sees you eating liver and mud, then she will say "I want some liver and mud too"! Then it made more sense to him!
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