Your child will have to listen really carefully to be successful with this amusing game that helps with early counting. As it is only sounds that are being counted it is important to keep track – and fingers might be needed! The schoolboys just can’t stop their hiccups! Listen carefully and count how many hiccups there are.

This is just one of a fantastic range of fun  maths activities which will quickly help your child become confident with number and enjoy their maths. Why not sign up now for completely free use of well over 1000 maths resources?

Go to our Maths Games on Counting

Another area of maths that we have had several requests for is early division. Over the next few days we will be updating this, starting with four pages on dividing by 10.

Dividing by 10 is probably the easiest of all mental division. All these questions only have division of multiples of 10 so there are no remainders. It is also worth pointing out to children that a number can be divided by ten by moving each digit one place to the right (the opposite of multiplying by 10).

Divide by 10

Sometimes the easiest way to carry out a subtraction sum is to count up from the lower number. This is especially true if the two numbers are close to each other, but cross the tens boundary. A subtraction such as 41 – 37 could be done in this way. Count on 3 to 40 and then 1 more to 41, making the answer 4.

I have seen children so confused by number that they get their pencil and paper out, write out the sum with the numbers under each other and then attempt the standard written method – all for something they could easily do ‘in their head’!

Subtracting 2-digits by counting up

These four worksheets are aimed at giving children practice at subtracting multiples of ten from 100. The aim of this is that they learn the answers off by heart, so they no longer have to count on or back. As there only a short number of possibilities it is important for children to know these pairs of numbers which make 100:

10 and 90

20 and 80

30 and 70

40 and 60

50 and 50.

Knowing these makes it much easier to subtract any 2-digit number ‘in your head’.

Subtracting multiples of 10 from 100

Here we have a set of pages where the subtraction number sentence need to be completed. There are several different strategies which can be used to do this, depending on which number is missing.

For example: in the number sentence 16 – ? = 7 the best way to do this is to count back 7 or to mentally subtract 7 from 16.

But, in the number sentence ? – 9 = 7 the best way to find the missing number is to add 9 and 7.

Thirdly the number sentence 16 – 9 = ? can be done by either counting back 9 from 16 or counting up from 9 to 16.

Because there are different techniques within the one page some children may find this trickier than expected.

Complete subtraction number sentences

Children need plenty of practice at counting on and back, not just in ones, but in twos, threes, fives and tens. It is also important to start at different numbers.
These four maths worksheets concentrate on counting up and down using number tracks or number lines with missing numbers. The more confident children are with this the easier they will find adding and subtracting 1-digit numbers. A key part of this is working out what the rule for the sequence is eg adding 3.
These pages can be found in the Superbrains section, under Counting and Number.

Go to our Find the missing numbers worksheets

One of the easiest ways of subtracting nine from a number is to subtract ten and then add one. This is a simple mental arithmetic ‘trick’ which many children do not pick up on and is much quicker than counting back nine using fingers etc. Probably the only time this method is not the most efficient is when the 2-digit number already has a 9 in the units.

Here we have four pages on subtracting 9 from 2-digit numbers and if your child has really grasped this idea they should be able to fly through a page in no time at all!

Subtracting 9 from a 2-digit number

Children should be very familiar with counting up and down in fives before attempting these worksheets. All the numbers on the pages are multiples of 5. Join them in pairs so that each pair adds up to 100.

Watch out for a common error with this type of work whereby children add an extra 10 to the answers, thinking that, for example,  65 + 45 = 100 as they do not take account of the two fives making another whole ten.

It’s not as easy as it looks to keep track of the pairs, even when drawing lines. it could be suggested that they use a pack of crayons to colour pairs the same colour.

Pairs that make 100

10p will buy you a sweet. But how much change will you get? I am sure that your child enjoys playing ‘shop’ at home and these four worksheets provide extra re-inforcement for them at giving change from 10p.

These days you tend to get your change plonked into your hand with the till receipt – gone are the days when the assistant carefully counted out your change!

This is just one of a fantastic range of fun  maths activities which will quickly help your child become confident with number and enjoy their maths. Why not sign up now for completely free use of well over 1000 maths resources?

Go to our Maths Worksheets on Change from 10p

The next in our rapidly developing series of addition worksheets for children who are getting more confident with mental arithmetic and can handle 2-digit numbers. These pages look at adding a 2-digit number to a multiple of 10, again all answers keep to below 100.

This is also good reinforcement of place value.

Watch out for the catty jokes on some of the pages!

Add a 2-digit number to a multiple of 10