Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Tiny Tim’s Maths Tips – Year 1 and 2 Addition continued…

The next stage is children producing more formal recordings using their own ‘blank number lines‘ (often referred to as BNL). Children are able to ‘count on‘ in ones (they do this in their heads but record their ‘working out‘) and circle the answer. (Slides 1, 2, 3 and 4)

When dealing with adding two digit numbers (eg 14 as opposed to a one digit number such as 8) they need to ‘partition‘. They split the smaller number in to ‘tens‘ and ‘units‘ and then on their number line first of all ‘jump on’ the ‘T‘ and then the ‘U‘. (Slides 5, 6, 7 and 8). This is even more challenging when crossing the tens (in this case over 50)

In the final example (Slides 9 to 14)  the child models using the above method and a ‘more efficient‘ method. This can be solves by jumping in tens and ones or, as on slides 13 and 14, in a jump of 20 and a jump of 3.

I hope this helps with addition at home. Remember giving maths a context makes it more real, more fun and gives it a reason for learning it. Watch this space for the next blog on Multiplication…….

Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Tiny Tim’s Maths Tips – Year 1 and 2 Addition


Children understand addition best when it is taught alongside subtraction. Furthermore learning is better if given  a context as mathematical concepts are difficult to grasp without them. For younger children counting people and objects (toys, buttons etc.) and questions such as ‘There are three children at a table and two more sit down. How many now?’ leading to older children’s understanding of ‘A drink costs 56p and an apple 24p. How much do they cost altogether?’ provide children a reason for learning addition. Calculation methods are taught and learnt to be used to solve problems such as these.

As with subtraction, children first need to use ‘concrete‘ resources, such as cubes, and will physically combine and touch them to find the total. (Slides 1 and 2)

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Children then start creating their own informal ways of recording this. (Slides 3 and 4)

As children experience ‘100 squares’ and ‘number lines’, they are able to count to higher numbers they use these to support their calculating skills. Children learn to  count forwards, ‘one more‘ (and later ‘ten more‘), and use given ‘number lines‘ to solve addition. (Slides 5 and 6)

Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Tiny Tim’s Maths Tips – Year 1 and 2 Subtraction continued…

The next stage is children producing more formal recordings using their own ‘blank number lines‘ (often referred to as BNL). Children are able to ‘count back‘ in ones (they do this in their heads but record their ‘working out‘) and circle the answer. (Slides 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5)

[simple_slideshow]

When dealing with subtracting two digit numbers (eg 15 as opposed to a one digit number such as 8) they need to ‘partition‘. They split the smaller number in to ‘tens‘ and ‘units‘ and then on their number line first of all ‘jump back’ the ‘T‘ and then the ‘U‘. (Slides 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10)

In the final example the child needs to ‘cross the tens‘ and it can help children to split the units, in this case the 9 in to a 4 and a 5, to jump back to 50 and then 45 rather then straight form 54 to 45. (Slides 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and16)

I hope this helps with subtraction at home. Remember giving maths a context makes it more real, more fun and gives it a reason for learning it. Watch this space for next week’s blog on Addition…….

Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Tiny Tim’s Maths Tips – Year 1 and 2 Subtraction


Children understand subtraction best when it is taught alongside addition. Furthermore learning is better if it is given  a context. For younger children a scenario such as ‘I had five oranges and we ate two. How many do we have left?’ leading to older children’s understanding of ‘I had two fifty pence coins and spent 25p at the shop. How much change did I receive?’ gives children a real reason for learning subtraction and is more engaging then an abstract calculation on its own. Calculation methods are taught and learnt to be used to solve problems such as these.

Many of the written methods learnt at school now differ from those parents and teachers learnt themselves. We teach them because they help understand ‘place value’ (for example what the 4 in 245 means as opposed to 425) and often link with what we do in our heads to solve a calculation.

When children first subtract they need to use ‘concrete‘ resources such as cubes and need to physically ‘take away‘ a given number to find the answer. (Slides 1 and 2)

Children then start creating their own informal ways of recording this. (Slides 3 and 4)

[simple_slideshow]

As children experience ‘100 squares’ and ‘number lines’ and are able to count to higher numbers they use these to support their calculating skills. Children learn to  count backwards, ‘one less‘ (and later ‘ten less‘), and use given ‘number lines‘ to solve subtraction. (Slides 5 and 6)