Five a Day - Calculations - Add subtract mentally

KS2Gems presents 'Maths Five a Day', a series of five SATs style questions designed to enhance students' mental arithmetic skills in addition and subtraction. Each question is crafted to mimic the type of queries found on past SATs papers, providing pupils with a familiar format for practice. Following each question, answers are revealed on the subsequent slide, allowing for immediate feedback. Teachers are encouraged to utilise these questions as a starter activity to gauge pupils' understanding or as a tool for retrieval practice to reinforce previously learned concepts.

The set of questions includes tasks such as completing number sequences with consistent increments and applying various mental strategies for calculations. For example, one question asks students to identify the missing numbers in a sequence where each term increases by 19. Another challenges students to consider different mental methods that could be used to subtract 78 from 163, such as adding 2 then subtracting 70, or subtracting 70 then subtracting 8. The exercises are designed to promote critical thinking and enable students to explore multiple approaches to mental arithmetic, fostering a deeper understanding of numerical relationships and problem-solving strategies.