This week in maths, Year 1 have been exploring commutative law. We’ve been learning that when we add two numbers together, it doesn’t matter which order we add them in – the total stays the same!
We’ve used lots of representations like cubes, counters and pictures to help us. Sometimes the objects were clearly grouped and other times we had to look carefully and decide how to split them into two parts. We practised writing both expressions, like 3 + 2 and 2 + 3, and talked about what’s the same and what’s different.
The children have been brilliant at explaining their thinking and using full sentences to talk about their maths. They’re getting more confident at spotting groups, splitting amounts in different ways and recording their ideas with addition symbols.
Help at home by spotting maths in everyday life. Try using toys, snacks or socks and ask your child to show you two groups. Can they write (or say) both expressions? For example, “I can see 4 and 1 – that’s 4 + 1 and 1 + 4!”