How can the equation x plus 2 equals 5 be solved using algebra tiles?

First you have:

x+2=5

you swap both sides around:

5=x+2

then take away 2 from both sides:

5-2=x+2-2

then you see +2-2 which leaves you with 0:

5-2=x+0

but to add 0 is just silly, so you can get rid of it:

5-2=x

which then you can see x=3 because 5-2=3