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Mia has 6 stickers. She gives 2 to her friend.
What kind of story is this?
En anglais
Real-World to Maths Connections
Move between a real-world situation and a mathematical representation using concrete objects, drawings, diagrams, tables, number sentences, or bar models
What a learner can do afterwards
- Given a story about combining groups, represent it with counters or cubes and find the total
- Given a set of objects, tell a simple addition or subtraction story to match
- Connect a physical action (putting together, taking away) to the matching operation
1 · Read
Real things happen every day. Toys get shared. Birds land on a branch. Math can show what happened, with pictures, objects, or numbers.
Tap each block and count out loud.
Try it together
Mia has 6 stickers. She gives away 2 stickers. Cross out 2 to see what is left. Now there are 4 stickers.
You can also go the other way. Look at a picture or at some numbers and tell the story they show. When groups come together, it is an adding story. When some are taken away, or crossed out in a picture, it is a subtracting story. The story, the picture, and the numbers all say the same thing.
A story, a picture, and a number can show the same thing.
More to read
At Home Learning: Solving Two-Step Problems: Word Problems
Stories turn into maths when groups join or leave. Three red cars plus two blue cars make five cars in a line. Count each colour, then add the piles. A line of cars works like a number line.
9.1 Use a Problem Solving Strategy
Act stories out with cubes or counters. Seven ducks on the pond, three waddle over: march ten counters together. Moving the counters copies the story, and counting them gives the total.
1.20: Word Problems for Linear Equations
Objects can tell their own stories too. Lay out nine counters, take four away, and ask what happened. Eight children with five gone home tells eight take away five. Count the objects, move them, and tell what happened.
Fun with Math: Addition and Subtraction
Hands join and leave all day long. Putting biscuits together adds, eating them subtracts. Twelve grapes shared by four friends quarters the pile. Everyday moves in the kitchen are maths moves too.
Explore more
2 · Watch
En anglais3 · Play
En anglais
Take it off screen
Print a worksheetA4 with an answer key page for grown-ups. No screen, no internet.
Where it sits
Learn first
Nothing; this is a starting point.
Optional connections
This opens up
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
Then practise
34 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.