The National Numeracy Strategy

Progression chart for subtraction

Ye a r K e y o b je c tive s E x a m p le s o f te a c h in g a c tivitie s a n d c h ild re n s wo rk
R e fe re n c e to
S u p p le m e n t o f
E xa m p le s
P ro b in g q u e stio n s
M isin te rp re ta tio n s
a n d E rro rs
In practical
activities and
discussion, begin
to use the
vocabulary
involved in adding
and subtracting.
Find 1 m ore or 1
less than a
num ber from 1
to 10.
B egin to relate
addition to
com bining tw o
groups of objects,
and subtraction to
taking aw ay.
R The teacher places 5 pegs on a w ashing line. The teacher gives G ary 6 sw eets and Jenny 4. R e c e p tio n
p. 14
p. 16, p. 17
Slow ly, w ith fairly large m ovem ents, put som e item s one by one into a container.
How many are inside? W rite the num ber on the outside of the container. Then,
w ithout saying anything, add one m ore. Point to the num eral. Is this OK? Why not?
What number should it say now?
R epeat, but w ithout counting in the item s in front of the children, tell them how
m any are inside and show the num eral. Then take 1 out or add 1.
How would you show someone else an easy way to find 1 more than a number?
What about 1 less than? Is there another way?
Put green bricks into sticks 1, 3 and 5 (to represent bunches of green grapes) and
red bricks in sticks of 2, 4 and 6 (to represent bunches of red grapes). Take a
three bunchand a tw o bunch. I have three green grapes and two red grapes,
how many grapes do I have in my lunchbox?
If I wanted seven grapes in my lunchbox, what grapes might I have?
B reak the grapes into 1s before m oving to subtraction. Look at your plate, how
m any grapes do you have? If I had 3 of your grapes, how many would you have
then? Show and tell me what you did to work it out.
Explain to me what happens when we take away in mathematics.
Make up a take away question and show me how to do it.
R ashid finds 7 - 3 by
counting backw ards
incorrectly.
H e says 7, 6, 5 its 5.
A lice can count to 10 but
cannot count out a given
num ber of item s. She does
not understand how to find
1 m ore or 1 less.
U nderstand the
operation of
addition and of
subtraction (as
take aw ayand
difference) and
use the related
vocabulary.
K now by heart all
pairs of num bers
w ith a total of 10.
W ithin the range 0
to 30, say the
num ber that is 1
or 10 m ore or less
than any given
num ber.
1 The teacher has a baking tray w ith cakeson it.
D avid finds the difference betw een 8 and 5 by
counting up from 5, saying 6, 7, 8 so it m ust be 3.
R obert understands and can do subtraction as
take aw ay.
Ye a rs 1 , 2 , a n d 3
p. 24, p.28
p.2, p.4, p.6
p. 30
p. 12
How many ways can you show me that 3 add 5 is 8? What about 9 subtract 3 is 6?
A sk the children to m ake up som e additions and subtractions for a given answ er.
Encourage the children to express the questions in different w ays, e.g. The
difference between 2 and 11 is 9.
With a number line, show me two numbers where the difference is 2. How
might you write that?
How many different pairs of numbers can you remember that have a total of 10?
How can you be sure you have got them all?
Ask the children to tell you num bers to put in the boxes to m ake these statem ents true:
is 1 m ore than 6 is 1 m ore than
is 1 less than 5 is 1 less than
30 is 10 m ore than is 10 m ore than
10 is 10 less than is 10 less than
How did you decide what numbers can be put in the boxes to make them true?
Is there a quick way of finding a number that is 10 more than a given number?
What about 10 less than?
C laire w orks out 16 9
saying
16 take 10 is 6, and 6 take
away another 1 is 5.
Phil can count in 10s
beyond 30 both forw ards
and backw ards. H e still
has difficulty finding 10
m ore or 10 less w hen the
answ er is a teensnum ber,
e.g. 25 10.
U se know ledge
that addition can
be done in any
order to do m ental
calculations m ore
efficiently.
K now by heart all
addition and
subtraction facts
for each num ber
to at least 10.
U nderstand that
subtraction is the
inverse of
addition; state the
subtraction
corresponding to
a given addition
and vice versa.
2 In response to If 41 +19 =60, what else do we
know? R osa w rote:
The teacher holds up digit cards. For 6she asks:
10 subtract 6 is ?
6 and what makes 9?
6 less than 8 is ?
Subtracting 30 from 60 leaves ?
What number must I subtract from 17 to leave 6?
I subtract 7 and the answer is 6; what is my
number?
The teacher w ants the children to record num ber
facts and relate these to sim ple contexts. She
draw s 10 faces on the board:
C hildren then recorded all the num ber facts they
could about 10 candles such as: 7 lit and 3 not
lit (10 = 7 + 3).
Ye a rs 1 , 2 a n d 3
p. 33
p. 31, p. 35
p. 25, p. 29
p. 37, p. 39
I want to find the total of these numbers: 2, 14 and 8. Tell me some different
ways we could add them. Would they all give the right answer? How do you
know? Tell me what you think is the best way to do it. Why?
Look at this number sentence: + =7. What could the two missing numbers
be? What else? Can you show/tell me all the pairs of numbers that make 7?
How do you know you have got them all?
What is 62 59? Write three more number sentences using your numbers. How
do you know they are correct (without calculating)?
What addition facts can you use to help you calculate 12 5, 19 8, etc?
Explain how they helped you.
I thought of a number. I subtracted 19 and the answer was 30. What was my
number? How do you know?
For 2 + 14, A li still w ants
to count on 14 from 2.
Em m a w rites 59 62 = 3
as she reads this as 59
from 62 and counts on
from 59.
G abriela can w rite dow n
the tw o subtraction
num ber sentences
corresponding to 6 + 7 = 13,
but she cannot cope w ith
the language I subtract 7
and the answ er is 6.
I had 5 birds on the
line. One flew away how
many are left?
If another bird lands on
the line how many birds
are there?
I have 12 cakes.
If I add one more how many
are there now?
I have 29 cakes. I give 10 to
my friend. How many have I
got left?
How many happy
faces, how many sad faces,
how many altogether?
(6+4=10)
How many faces altogether,
how many happy, how
many sad? (10-6=4)
If I put Garys and
J ennys sweets in one bag
how many sweets would I have
altogether? If Gary gives 2
sweets to a friend how many
will he have left?
Ye a r K e y o b je c tive s E x a m p le s o f te a c h in g a c tivitie s a n d c h ild re n s wo rk
R e fe re n c e to
S u p p le m e n t o f
E xa m p le s
P ro b in g q u e stio n s
M isin te rp re ta tio n s
a n d E rro rs
K now by heart all
addition and
subtraction facts
for each num ber
to 20.
A dd and subtract
m entally a near
m ultiple of 10to
or from a tw o-digit
num ber.
3 Teacher m odels 46 + 19 on a num ber line and
asks the children to record num ber statem ents.
A nna records 46 + 20 1 = 65.
Susie records 46 1 + 20 = 65.
Luke records 46 + 10 + 10 1 = 65.
Tony breaks larger num bers dow n to m ultiples
of 10 but know s20 m inus 18 is 2.
Ye a rs 1 , 2 a n d 3
p. 31
p. 35
p. 37, p. 39, p.
41
p. 43, p. 45
A sk the children to explain their m ethod w hen adding or subtracting a near
m ultiple of 10.
Why is this a good mental method for adding 19?
What is the difference between adding 19 and subtracting 19 using this
method?
Show me why this is, using a 1 to 100 grid.
Stuart m akes the sm aller
from largererror.
W rite the answ er to:
82 29
You m ust show your
w orking.
U se know n num ber
facts and place value
to add or subtract
m entally, including
any pair of tw o-digit
w hole num bers.
C arry out colum n
addition and
subtraction of tw o
integers less than
1 000 and colum n
addition of m ore than
tw o such integers.
4
There are 486 girls and 521 boys in a school.
How many more boys are there than girls?
The teacher holds up tw o-digit num bers w hich
the children have to subtract from 100 in their
heads. They have been taught to subtract the
nearest m ultiple of 10 and adjust. For 100 68,
Sim on reasons 100 70 = 30 and 70 68 = 2
So the answ er is 32.
Ye a rs 4 , 5 a n d 6
p. 38, p. 40
p. 44, p. 46
p. 48, p. 50
What strategies would you use to work out the answer to these calculations? Could
you use a different method? How could you check that your answer is correct?
What tips would you give to someone to help them with column
addition/subtraction?
Which of these are correct/incorrect? What has this person done wrong? How
could you help them correct it?
When is it sensible not to use column addition/subtraction? Would it help you to
do these that way?
501 487 871 99 327 166
350 + 150 476 + 401 327 + 166
Joel finds how m any m ore
girls there are:
521
- 486
_____
100
60
5
_____
165
The 60 cam e from saying
20 take aw ay 80 is 60.
C arry out colum n
addition and
subtraction of
positive integers
less than 10 000.
C alculate m entally
a difference such
as 8 006 - 2 993.
5 5 009 people attended a rock concert. How
many were still there after 2 476 had left?
Joe used standard colum n subtraction.
K aren found the difference easier to find m entally.
The teacher w orks w ith the w hole class,
m odelling calculations. If we know 5 009
subtract 2 476 equals 2 533, what else do we
know? C hildren build up the fam ily of facts.
5 009 2 476 = 2 533 5 009 2 533 = 2 476
2 533 + 2 476 = 5 009 2 476 + 2 533 = 5 009
Ye a rs 4 , 5 a n d 6
p. 49, p. 51
p. 41
p. 43 p. 45,
p. 47
Which of these subtractions can you do without writing anything down? Why is
it possible to solve this one mentally? What clues did you look for?
What is the answer to the one that can be solved mentally?
How do you find the difference? Talk me through your method.
If the children explain a m ethod of counting backw ards, ask: Is it possible to
count up as well? Why will this give the same result? Which is easier?
If 2 003 is the answer to a similar question, what could the question be?
Tom calculates:
5009
- 2476
______
3003
H is 0s cam e from saying
7 from nothing you
cant, so put down a
nought .
C arry out colum n
addition and
subtraction of
num bers involving
decim als.
6 The children in this Year 6 class w ere w orking on
adding and subtracting decim als. The teacher
presented a table of ferry fares for A zadurs
group to w ork from .
Ye a rs 4 , 5 a n d 6
p. 49, p. 51
p. 71, p. 73
Make up an example of an addition/subtraction involving decimals that you
would do in your head, and one you would do on paper. Explain why you chose
your examples.
G ive the children som e com pleted questions to m ark. Q uestions need to be w ritten
horizontally as w ell as in colum n form . Include incorrect answ ers like:
12.3 + 9.8 = 21.11; 4.07 1.5 = 3.92; 3.00 1.18 = 2.92.
Which are correct/incorrect? How do you know?
Explain w hat has been done w rong and correct the answ ers.
Subtract 3.75 from 8.6
Louise ignores the decim al
points and subtracts the
sm allernum ber.
Extend m ental
m ethods of
calculation to
include decim als,
fractions and
percentages.
7 C hildren apply their m ental skills to solve sim ple
problem s, using jottings w here appropriate. Find
17
1
/2% of 60
Leroy saved 315. H e bought a C D -player for
89. H ow m uch m oney does he have left?
Ye a rs 7 , 8 a n d 9
pp. 92100
How does partitioning help when adding decimals?
What checking strategies for whole numbers can also be applied to decimal
calculations (e.g. inverse operations, estimating an answer)?
How would you help someone to find 10%, 20%, 15%, 200%?
Explain how you would find 1/3 and 1/5 of 60.
How would you use this information to find 2/3 and 2/5 of 60?
Sue cannot relate 200% to
double. A lex can w ork
through 2/5 of 60 but has
no strategy for checking
w hether his answ er is
correct.