Ray's New Primary Arithmetic · Lesson XXIV · Unit 4: Subtraction

24. Taking away: the owls and the bats

Goal: Your child understands taking away, and uses the word "less", in stories and with a picture.

⏱ About 15 minutes · 4 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗

You'll need

  • The book page (it has a picture of owls and bats)
  • About 20 small counters: dried beans, buttons, pennies or pebbles (the book suggests marbles, beans or pebbles)

What's in the book

A picture of owls and bats, then questions such as "There were three owls sitting on a tree; two of them flew away, how many were left?" and "Seven less 4 are how many?"

The lesson, step by step

  1. Talk about the picture

    Count the owls and the bats together.

  2. Act it out

    Put 3 beans on the table as owls. Two fly away (move them off).

    SayHow many are left? So 3 less 2 are 1.

  3. The word "less"

    Ray's says "7 less 4 are 3" where we might say "7 minus 4 is 3". Use the book's way for now.

  4. Book questions

    Work through the questions on the page with counters.

Afterwards

Make up one "flew away" or "ate up" story a day.

@teddyrookbook GitHub