Help Your Child with Maths
Helping Your Child with Tens and Units (TU) - Units (U)
All the resources on this page focus on Tens and Units subtract Units.
These are calculations that look like this:
Work through these five steps, encouraging your child to explain to you what they see happening. This helps your child to understand the process and avoids them just getting the answer right by following a ‘recipe’. Short, frequent practise helps too, so you might consider spending 15 minutes each day for a week, working through one step at a time.
1. Watch
Watch Rosie complete this calculation.
Top tip: Listen to the language she uses and pay special attention when she shows you that 10 Units is the same as one Ten.
2. Try
Try completing this calculation for yourself and then watch how Rosie does it to see how you got on.
Top tip: Notice how the larger number is always in the top row in a subtraction calculation.
3. Practise
Practise another example and then watch how Rosie does it without using Tens rods and Unit cubes.
Top tip: Do you see that Rosie always reads each part of the calculation from the top down?
4. Build Confidence
Build confidence by completing these two work cards that Rosie made for you. She thinks that you have nearly mastered this skill, so she has called them ‘Nearly There’ cards.
Top tip: Remember, subtraction calculations can use many different words, but you work through them in the same way.
5. Celebrate success
Celebrate success by completing these final calculations. Rosie says that when you really understand how to do something the ‘penny has dropped,’ so this is your ‘Penny Drop’ card.
Top tip: It is not a big deal if you make any mistakes, because you can use the resources as many times as you like.
These resources are useful while viewing the videos:
Cut out the Tens rods and Unit cubes and use them when you are working out your calculations.
Use this sheet when working out your calculations. It will help you to keep the symbol, tens and units in separate columns.