Max Maths, Year 1, Practice, Number sentence families

In the Max Maths Year 1 practice activity, children are encouraged to explore the concept of number sentence families. This exercise helps to develop their understanding of the relationship between addition and subtraction. Students are presented with a set of incomplete number sentences in pairs, one for addition and one for subtraction. Their task is to fill in the blanks to create a 'family' of number sentences that are interconnected. These families demonstrate that the numbers used in an addition sentence can be rearranged to form a related subtraction sentence.

For example, in part (a), children will complete two addition and two subtraction sentences that are linked by the same numbers. They might write something like '3 + 2 = 5' and '5 – 2 = 3' for the first pair, and then '2 + 3 = 5' and '5 – 3 = 2' for the second pair, showing that the sum of the two smaller numbers equals the larger number, and vice versa for subtraction. They will repeat this process for parts (b) and (c), each time creating a new set of number sentences that form a family. This activity not only reinforces basic arithmetic skills but also helps children understand the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction, laying the groundwork for more advanced mathematical concepts.