The children have returned to school in great form after the Christmas break and have shown they are ready to learn!
This week in Maths we have built on our prior learning of rebalancing an equation when adding, to make it easier to calculate and applying this understanding to subtraction.
We started by revisiting finding the difference, by comparing two rows of cubes. Together the children worked out that they could ‘find the difference’ by using the following strategies:
- comparing
- subitising
- counting on
- taking away
They then enjoyed playing ‘Bank the difference’ in pairs, using cubes. The first player chose a number between 10 and 20 and made a corresponding row of cubes. The second player chose a number between 1 and 10 and made the corresponding row of cubes underneath their partner’s row.
Together the children identified what the difference was using the strategies above. The player who chose the largest number banked the difference. The partners played again, this time the second player went first to choose the larger number. The winner was the player who had the most cubes at the end. The children loved learning by playing this game.
In the following lessons we thought about how we could rebalance some equations when finding the difference, to make them easier to calculate, by using the nearest multiple of 10, for example,
11-5=
By taking 1 away from each side the equation became easier to calculate using our knowledge of ‘think 10’.
10-4=
We practised this with cubes, to prove the difference remained the same! It was 6 both times!
We looked at some calculations and thought about HOW they had been rebalanced. We then went onto work them out, circling the equation that was the easiest!
What incredible Mathematicians we have in Year 2!
How you can help at home:
Try playing bank the difference and post a picture on seesaw.