Team Piper’s Maths: Take Away

Today in maths, Team Piper explored take away using first, then, now sentences.

We worked together as a whole class to tell subtraction stories. For example, “First there were 5 apples. Then 2 were taken away. Now there are 3 apples.” The children were brilliant at using the sentence stem to explain what was happening and I was so impressed that some children even created their own take away stories independently!

This is a really important step because it helps children understand what subtraction means, rather than just learning it as a number sentence. They are learning to talk through what has changed and explain their thinking clearly.

You can support this at home by making simple take away stories using toys, snacks or objects around the house. For example, “First there were 6 grapes. Then I ate 2. Now there are 4.” Encourage your child to move the objects as they tell the story and use the words first, then, now.