step 1 of 6
You are at the Meadow Lane allotment. You tip two baskets together and count 6 strawberries in the big basket. Now two blackbirds hop down and take 2 away.
How many strawberries stay in the basket?
Subtraction as taking away or separating
Understand subtraction as taking away or separating from a group to find how many remain
What a learner can do afterwards
- Model 'taking away' with physical objects and say how many remain
- Act out a 'take from' situation (e.g. 5 biscuits, eat 2, how many left?)
- Explain that subtraction means finding how many are left
1 · Read
Subtraction means taking some away. You start with a group. You take some out. Then you count what is left. Taking away makes the group smaller.
Try it together
Leo has 7 apples. He gives 2 away. He counts what is left: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Five apples remain.
Good to know
Say the group size first. Then say how many you take away. Last, count what remains.
Subtraction means taking some away and counting what is left.
2 · Watch
3 · Play
Take it off screen
Print a worksheetA4 with an answer key page for grown-ups. No screen, no internet.
Where it sits
Learn first
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
Then practise
17 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.