This is my very first blog, and I do not know if there are certain rules to blogging. So, I am going to just share a short snippet of my thoughts. I have seen several students struggling with basic number sense my entire teaching career. However, my experiences most recently have me questioning what I am doing (or we are doing) and wondering how I can help students. This year students have struggled with simple addition and subtraction facts. The most boggling, 6 – 6. Students have given answers such as 1, 3, 6, “there is none,” and “you cannot do it.” There is no answer for 6 – 6 for some students. It is worth noting that this was not an isolated case. There were several students who struggled with the concept of subtracting everything and having zero left. The students spanned two grade levels and came from different classes. Is this something that has always been there and I missed it? Is this typical for students in 3rd and 4th grade to struggle with basic foundations such as zero? Or, is this because of the lack of schooling students have dealt with the previous two years? The most important question, how can I help younger students so they don’t have these same struggles?