Teach Primary Issue 18.7

the difference between two numbers (as in The Winner Takes It All, explained below), pupils may have realised that the smaller the first number (the minuend) and the larger the second number (the subtrahend), the smaller the difference between the two. Sentence frames can be useful to get children thinking about these concepts during a game. Try these: If...then... I have noticed... Family fun When pupils have played a game at school a few times, why not consider inviting families in for a gaming session along with their children? Provide resources so they can continue this learning together at home (see the download box above for a free gaming mat and instructions for Winner Takes It All). Alternatively, you could film a round of the game and share the recording along with the rules on your class webpage or app, and let families know that it’s there to enjoy. What about evidence? Sometimes, we can feel under pressure to have evidence of learning in the children’s books. The question is, though, how we can make this both manageable and purposeful for our pupils. After all, that should be the rationale behind recording anything at all, right? You could pause during a game to ask your children a question. This might be as a whole class, or even at a table or with a pair of players. Provide sentence structures to help pupils jot down ideas in their books, such as: ⋅ Why did you make that choice? I chose to... because... ⋅ What do you hope/predict is going to happen? I think that... ⋅ Which strategy did you use? I... because... ⋅ Can you think of another way of doing it? I could... Alternatively, at the end of the game you could ask questions such as: ⋅ What skill/strategy did you use? I... because... ⋅ What did you/other players do well? I noticed that... ⋅ If you played again, how might you play differently? Next time, I could... ⋅ How could you change the game to make it easier/ harder? I would... because... Give it a go Opportunities for assessment are plentiful during a maths gaming session. If modelled well, children will become engrossed in the game and therefore immersed in the learning. You can observe and interact with pupils in the moment to determine the security of their understanding and level of efficiency. Alternatively, take a guided group for some pinpointed teaching (in use of base facts of the strategy of rebalancing, for example) to move their learning on while they play. Winner takes it all The aim of the game here is to collect the greatest number of cards. Firstly, remove the 10s and picture cards from your pack, then deal each player five cards. Arrange the cards in any order on the playing mat (a free version is available at the download link above. The player with the smallest difference collects all cards used in that turn. When there aren’t enough cards left, the player with the most cards wins. See Figure 1 for an example of the layout. You’ll notice that player one has 123−74 = 49. Player two has 235−98 = 137. Player one wins this set, with a smaller difference of 49. If children need to reactivate knowledge of the definition of ‘difference’, try using a whole-part model to illustrate the whole, the known part, and the unknown part (the difference). This game is also a great opportunity to rehearse subtraction. You could use Winner Takes It All in Y4 as part of the teaching sequence, or during a fluency session to secure learning. You can also use it in Y5 or Y6 to reactivate prior learning before working with increasingly large numbers within multi-step problems. TP Nicola Adams is a senior primary maths teaching and learning adviser at HFL Education (formerly Herts for Learning). DOWNLOAD RESOURCES AT Download your FREE game board and rules at tinyurl.com/ tp-GamingMaths Fig.1 @hertsmaths tinyurl.com/tp-MathsChallenge www.teachwire.net | 53