Mental addition and subtraction Target Board

The KS2Gems Target Board for mental addition and subtraction is an engaging educational tool designed for Year 6 students to practice and enhance their arithmetic skills with large numbers. The objective is straightforward: to add or subtract numbers mentally, challenging the students to work with increasingly larger figures. This resource is versatile and can be used to kick-start a maths lesson or as a concluding activity, making it perfect for retrieval practice and reinforcing mental calculation strategies.

Target Boards offer a dynamic way to engage the whole class or smaller groups in quick maths exercises. Teachers can display the board, while children use whiteboards and pens to jot down their answers. The activity can be tailored to different ability levels by providing groups with specific instructions, such as finding pairs of numbers that add up to a certain total. For example, a teacher might ask, "How many pairs of numbers can you find that total more than 2500?" This encourages discussion about the strategies used to solve the problems. The Target Board is a simple yet effective tool for practicing mental maths, and it's suitable for a range of numerical operations, including larger sums and currency-based calculations.