By Claire Barnes, Willow Dene School Take Away Four A multi-sensory presentation to promote the concept, vocabulary and symbols of subtraction and skills in relating the operation of subtraction to both a set of objects and a number line By Claire Barnes, Willow Dene School

Click to make the set of objects appear Click to make the set of objects appear. Each object will be accompanied by an audio cue and as it appears the corresponding number on the number line will change colour and be highlighted. Encourage students to count along and pay attention to both the set of objects and the number line and discuss how the two relate to each other. Click to make the sum appear. It will appear number (or symbol) at a time. Encourage students to read it aloud as it appears, and discuss what each numeral or symbol represents (e.g. 5 – 4 = “It says five because we’ve got five objects; what does this symbol (–) mean? Can we think of a different word for it? – introduce alternative vocabulary, such as take away or subtract – How many are we going to take away? What does this symbol (=) mean?”). You could ask students to estimate the answer at this stage, or suggest whether the answer will be more or less than the original set. Click to cause four objects to disappear. They will disappear one at a time, accompanied by an audio cue. The highlight on the corresponding numeral will simultaneously fade, although the numeral will remain blue. Draw the students’ attention to what is happening to the set and on the number line. Ask the students how many objects they can see now and to explain how they know (by counting, looking at the number line, etc.). Look at the number line, and work through the sum (e.g. “We started with five objects, so all of these numbers turned blue and were highlighted. We took away four, that’s one, two three, four, so the highlight faded on these numbers. Number one stayed highlighted because that’s how many things are left”) Click to trigger the answer. It will appear, accompanied by an audio cue. On the last slide, click to make the learning outcome appear and click again to trigger the smiley face and applause.

5 – 4 = 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

8 – 4 = 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

6 – 4 = 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

9 – 4 = 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

4 – 4 = 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

10 – 4 = 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

7 – 4 = 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10