Rebalancing Number Sentences

This week in Year 2 we have been learning to rebalance number sentences to make them easier to solve.

This is the vocabulary we use when discussing addition and subtraction.

When we add 2 numbers together we can rebalance the number sentence by adding an amount to one of the addends and taking it away from the other addend.

For example:

We have also been using the rebalancing strategy to find the difference between 2 amounts.
To remind ourselves of the meaning of ‘finding the difference’ we enjoyed playing a game called bank the difference. To make it a bit more challenging we used number cards to 20 instead of dice.
When rebalancing a subtraction or ‘finding the difference’ we need to either add an amount to both the minuend and the subtrahend or subtract an amount.
How to help at home 
  • Teach your family to play ‘Bank the Difference’. Use this video to help you remember the rules – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG_wNDa_qxg
  • When shopping choose 2 items and see if you can find out the total. Can you also work out how much change you will get?
  • Play board games – use 2 dice to help improve your fluency when adding
  • Continue to use Numbots at home