The children worked collaboratively with their partners to solve a variety of number problems involving three addends. By breaking the stories into steps, pupils were able to visualise how numbers change and build confidence when adding several amounts together.

Once they had practised solving different problems, the children took on the role of teachers themselves, creating and sharing their own addition stories to challenge their classmates. This encouraged mathematical discussion, reasoning and problem-solving as they explained their thinking and checked each other's answers.

One of the challenges the children explored was:

• First, there were 2 books on the shelf.
• Then, 2 more were added.
• Then, another 3 were added.
• How many books are now on the shelf?

Activities such as these help pupils develop fluency in addition while strengthening their reasoning and communication skills. We were delighted to see the enthusiasm, teamwork and confidence shown throughout the lesson.

Well done, Elephants Class, for your fantastic mathematical thinking! 

Manor Drive Primary Academy, part of the Four Cs Trust is committed to providing engaging learning experiences that enable all children to develop confidence, curiosity and a love of mathematics.