Maths focus: Subtraction

Key vocabulary:  subtract, take away, less, fewer, minus & - sign (all meaning the same thing)

                       :  leaves/ = sign (meaning the same thing)

                       :  how many are left? Not as many.

Below are some activities you can do over the course of the week. You can do a few each day. You can also repeat activities in order to help your child to fully understand the concept of subtraction or if youyr child has particularly enjoyed them. You can work on numbers to 5 initially or move straight on to 10.

Activity:

Using fingers, focus on finding 1 less or 1 fewer. For example, “Put up 4 fingers… 1 less…. How many are left?” Ask your child to tell you how s/he found the answer, e.g. “I put up 4 fingers. I took 1 away and I had 3 left.” Repeat with lots of different number of fingers and use both1 less or 1 fewer, as both mean the same in this instance. Each time encourage your child to explain how they found the answer.  

Use fingers to recite and act out the number rhyme, “Ten Green Bottles”

(CTRL + click to access) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE3Dk9iBS-g

(Numberblocks)

Activity:

Using the cut up numbers from last week, ask your child to make the number line from 0 to 9. Adult writes a selection of calculations on pieces of paper, e.g. 1 less than 6 or 1 fewer than 8. Encourage your child to read the instruction, with you if necessary. Then ask your child what they need to do first.

If the calculation is 1 less than 6- ask your child what s/he needs to do first (Put my finger on 6). Once his/her finger is on number 6 on the number line, ask what s/he needs to do next. (Count back 1) Your child then moves his/her finger back one number on the number line and says the answer “5.”

Repeat from different starting points. Your child might be able to do this without using their finger, but need to be consistent.

When your child is confidently finding 1 less or fewer than numbers up to 9, then move onto numbers up to 20.

Activity:

Using the fingers on both hands. Instructions, can use both oral and written, e.g. “Put up 6 fingers…. Take away 4 fingers…. How many are left?” Encourage your child to say the calculation, “6 take away 4 leaves 2.”

Another example: “Put up 8 fingers…. Subtract 5 fingers…. How many are left?” Encourage your child to say the calculation, “6 subtract 4 leaves 2.”

Continue with other calculations, as above, and each time encourage your child to say the sum. You can also use the terms: minus, less or fewer, e.g. 2 fewer than…, 3 less than… etc.

Your child can make up their own calculations.

Activity:

Using objects (up to 10) from around the house, e.g. toys, buttons, cutlery, fruit, tins, socks, marbles etc. Instruction, use both oral and written: “Get out 6 cars…. Subtract 4 cars…. How many are left?” Encourage your child to say the calculation, e.g. “6 take away 4 leaves 2.”

Continue with other calculations, as above, and each time encourage your child to say the sum. You can also use the terms: subtract, minus, less or fewer, e.g. 2 fewer than…, 3 less than… etc.

Your child can compose their own calculations.

Or

Using written instructions, e.g. “8 minus 4 leaves…?” Your child will get out 8 objects and rather than take 4 away, s/he will cover 4 of the items with a cloth/piece of fabric/scarf, and then see how may are left. Again encourage your child to say the calculation at the end.

Activity:

Get out 9 objects/toys. Roll a die and then take that amount of objects away. Ask your child to tell you the calculation, e.g. 9 take away 4 leaves 5. Then ask your child if they can record their sum. This might be in the form of 9 pictures with 4 crossed out, or a sentence, e.g. 9 subtract 4 leaves 5, or using the symbols, 9- 4= 5 or a combination of the them all. Ask your child to read back to you what they have written.

Repeat and see how many different calculations you can write using 9 objects.

Next time or on another day, use 7, 8 or 10 objects.

Activity:

Subtraction game: each person starts with 10 objects. Have a pile of pieces of paper with  0, 1, 2 or 3 written on them. First person turns over a piece of paper and takes that amount of objects away. If the paper had 3 on it, s/he says “10 take away/ subtract/ minus 3 leaves 7.” Each person takes it in turns to turn over a piece of paper and explain what has happened. The winner is the first person to have no objects left.

During the game, every so often, stop and discuss who has the most/least objects left and ask him/her to explain how s/he knows.

If the amount is too great for the number of objects left, discuss why that amount cannot be taken away. You can play this starting with different amounts of objects, e.g. 9, 8, 7.

Activity:

Skittles- using skittles, plastic bottles, plastic/paper cups, large bricks etc. Stand up as many of the objects that you have (up to 10). Then stand back behind a marker (rope, ribbon, string etc. and roll a ball towards the items and see how many you can knock over. Record it as a sum. Have 5 turns and see how many items you knocked over altogether. If playing alone, have another game and see if you can knock more or less down after 5 turns.

You can play with members of your family. At the end of the 5 turns, you can all identify who knocked down the most/least, explaining how you know.

You can play this game using different amounts. This can be done inside or outdoors.

Activity:

Create a bus using chairs or cushions, up to 10. Place a toy on each (dolls, superheroes, teddy bears, cuddly toys etc.) Make up a subtraction story, e.g. “There were 10 toys on the bus and at the bus stop Teddy got off the bus to go to the shop. (Remove the teddy). There 10 toys, 1 got off so 10 take away 1 leaves 9”.

“There were 9 toys on the bus and at the next bus stop, doll and Spiderman got off the bus to go to play in the park. There 9 toys on the bus and 2 got off so 9 subtract 2 leaves 7.”

Repeat until there are no more toys on the bus.

This can be done inside or outdoors. This can be done using different amounts of chairs/ cushions, e.g. 5, 7, 9.

Activity:

Subtraction game. Using numbers up to 10.

With your child’s help, write a number of different calculations onto pieces of paper and numbers to 0 to 10 on another set of pieces of paper. Remember our four is written like this 4 and seven is written like this 7.

For example, 5-3=, 7-5=, 9-6=, 4-4=, 6-0= etc.

Set up a course your child needs to follow, for example, place objects, with even spaces between them, on the ground for your child to ride a scooter/ tricycle/ bicycle/car around or your child can jog/ jump/ gallop/ skip around.

At the start of the course place the pieces of paper with the sums on.

At the end place a container with lots of smaller objects (balls, cars, plastic/ wooden bricks etc.) inside and the numbered pieces of paper.

How to play the game

1. Read the calculation on the paper.

2. Follow the course to the container. Use the objects to find the answer   If the calculation

   is 6 minus 4 leaves, encourage your child to tell you what they are doing as s/he do it,

   e.g. Get out 6 objects….take away 4…… leaves 2. Find the piece of paper with the

   answer on.

3. Follow the course back to the beginning and tell your adult the answer. If correct, pick

   another sum to do. If it is incorrect, have a chat with your adult and have another go.

   Remember if you keep trying, you will get better and you learn from your

   mistakes!  Most importantly, have fun!

You can time yourselves to see how fast you are. You can play with other members of your family.

This game can be adapted for indoors too, giving your child different

movements to do when following the course. Can also include crawling, sliding, bunny hops, hopping, walking backwards etc.