Vertical subtraction

Main part:
The teacher reads the well-known fairy tale. Then she calls one pupil to act as the mother-goat and seven pupils to play the little goats. She explains to the rest of the pupils that the mother-goat takes care of her children by counting them from time to time. Two of the little goats go to the forest to play. How many are left?

Then another one goes away. So 3 of them are away now…how many are left?

Each time the teacher asks the pupils how many of the little goats are near her, the pupils do the operation using the symbol “- “ or “+” in their notebooks.

After each movement of little goats, first the group and then the teacher check the answers.

	7 Little goats
3rd Primary School of Eleftheroupoli ELEFTHEROUPOLI, GREECE
Age: 7-8 years old Aims: To practice subtraction which they have already been taught. To get familiar with the symbol “-“ and to understand that “+” is for addition and “-“ is for subtraction.
Main part: The teacher reads the well-known fairy tale. Then she calls one pupil to act as the mother-goat and seven pupils to play the little goats. She explains to the rest of the pupils that the mother-goat takes care of her children by counting them from time to time. Two of the little goats go to the forest to play. How many are left? Then another one goes away. So 3 of them are away now…how many are left? Each time the teacher asks the pupils how many of the little goats are near her, the pupils do the operation using the symbol “- “ or “+” in their notebooks. After each movement of little goats, first the group and then the teacher check the answers.

Finally the pupils have to write the operations separately: on one side of the page they write all the additions and the subtractions on the other side.