Resources

Two dice designed to match the range of the learners. Dot cards or matching dice for the children to use.

Target Strategies

counting back or counting on strategies to solve subtraction questions

familiarity with subtraction situations

language related to subtraction, e.g., take away, covered, how many left, half.

Closed Questions

Encourage the children to use their dot cards or identical dice to model the actions in these questions.

I have thrown a four on my first dice but one less on my second dice. Show me what's on my second dice.

There were six dots showing on my dice. I have covered one of them and now I can only see 2 dots. How many dots are there on the dice that I have covered?

I can see 7 dots on my dice altogether. How many dots must I cover to have only 3 left?

Open Questions

I have thrown 9 on my two dice. If I put one away what might be showing on the other one?

I have thrown 9 dots with my two dice. One of the dice is less than half the amount of dots. What might the other dice be showing?

I took the smaller number of dots on one dice away from the larger number of dots on the other dice. There are six dots on the larger dice, what might the smaller number of dots have been.

Flip Questions

Altogether I had 11 dots showing on my two dice. I took a dice away. Ask me some count back or take away questions to find out how many dots were on the dice. Count back questions or t could include questions, such as,

"Is it a count back 1/2/3?"

"Did you take away more than half of the dots?"

"Did you take away nearly half of the dots?"

Reflection

How did using the dot cards help you understand the questions?

Which questions did you like best? Why?