Module 4 Calculating
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Can I work out and record the information I need to use to solve a puzzle or problem?

Example review questions

What calculation would you do to answer each of these problems?

  • A cheese string is 12cm long. I bite off and eat 4cm. How long is the cheese string now?
  • Amit spent 24p. He spent 8p more than Amy. How much did Amy spend?
  • My brother has five bags of 10 conkers. How many conkers does he have altogether?
  • Five children can sit at one table. There are 25 children. How many tables are needed?
  • Draw a picture or diagram to explain how you would solve one of the above calculations.
  • Explore different ways of making 20p using 2p, 5p and 10p coins. Record your working so that a friend can follow it. How could you check that you have found all the possibilities?
  • I think of a number and add 8. My answer is 24. What was my number? What could I record to help me solve this problem?
  • Three birds laid some eggs. Each bird laid an odd number of eggs. Altogether they laid 19 eggs. How many eggs did each bird lay? What practical equipment or drawings could you use to help you solve this puzzle?

Teaching guidance

This teaching guidance document suggests some of the key vocabulary, models, images and practical equipment that children should experience and be able to use. It also includes some teaching tips to provide a few starting points for ways of supporting children with this area of mathematics.

PDF file Can I work out and record the information I need to use to solve a puzzle or problem? - teaching guidance | 35KB new window

Consolidation and practice

These resources are to support children in guided or independent work.

PDF file Which operation discussion cards | 25KB new window

PDF file Mathematical challenges | 634KB new window

Opportunities to use and apply

Possible contexts include:

  • Solving real-life problems, e.g. organising teams for PE, sharing out items between tables, working out what you can buy with your pocket money.
  • Making up number stories using given information or contexts, e.g. write a number story about pets using addition and the numbers 6, 4 and 10. Now write a story using the same numbers and subtraction. Can you use the numbers 5, 10 and 50 to write a story involving division or multiplication?
  • Solving two-step problems, e.g. there are 60 sweets in a bag; 20 sweets are red, 16 sweets are yellow and the rest are green. How many sweets are green?
  • Selecting numbers to make number stories true, e.g.
    Sam has empty box stickers and Kate has empty box stickers. Altogether they have 7 stickers.
    Class 3 has empty box boxes of 10 pencils. Altogether they have empty box pencils.

Confirming learning

Ask probing questions such as:

  • Think of your own word problem to match the calculation
    23 − 14.
  • A pencil costs 20p and a ruler costs 35p. What word problems could I ask based on this information? Can you write down the number sentence to match each of your word problems?
  • What important things do you need to think about when solving word problems? What clues help you to work out which number sentence to use?
  • Explore different ways of making 12p using 2p, 5p and 10p coins. Record your working so that a friend can follow it. How could you check that you have found all the possibilities?
  • Investigate different ways of making 50p using only 5p, 10p and 20p coins. How many different ways can you find? Record each different way of doing it.