Subtraction - borrowing

I tried to think of a fun way to teach Joshua borrowing during subtraction, and this is what I came up with.

I found some smarties and sweethearts roll candies leftover from halloween (candy always makes activites high interest).  I took some out, leaving 10 pieces of candy in each roll.  

I gave Joshua a problem to solve, such as 52 - 5.

We counted out 52, using our tens and ones.  Then I asked him how we were going to take away 5 ones when we only had 2.  He figured out that we would have to unwrap a roll of 10, so we did.  I asked him how many 10s we had now, and how many ones.  Then he took away the 5 ones, and we counted again.  

We did that a few times with different problems, and then I showed him how we write it out when we're doing it on paper, and if we wanted to do it without manipulatives.  

Here comes Nathan, trying to help him subtract some candy

He picked it up pretty quickly, so I'd say it was a success.