Grade ones have been working on making number sentences to match a given picture. This is proving to be challenging for many.

We have discussed how to make two reciprocal addition sentences by adding each group to the other – both ways – and getting a total. For subtraction they can also make two number sentences – one each for subtracting each group in turn from the total. With subtraction they need to start with all of the items i.e. the total (biggest) number.