Years 1 and 2: Addition and subtraction

See measures problems for more examples of the difference model of

subtraction

7 strawberries and 9 strawberries.

How many altogether?

8 birds. 3 flew away.

How many left?

5p and 6p
How much altogether?

9 apples. We eat 7.
How many left?

10 bananas. I eat 2.
How many left?

6 birds and 4 birds.

How many altogether?

Tom has 10 conkers. Billy has 8.

How many do they have altogether?

I’ve got 5p. My brother gives me 4p.

How much do I have now?

I had 10p and I spent 7p.

How much do I have left?

In a game I’ve got 8 points and my sister has 6 points.

What’s the difference in our score?

That apple costs 10p and the pear costs 13p.

What’s the difference in the price?

Tom has 14 conkers. Billy has 10.

How many more conkers has Tom than Billy?

Mum made 20 cakes. The children ate 6.

How many are left?

Rosie had 15p. She spent 5p.

How much did she have left?

In a game, I score 6 points and 7 points.

What’s my score?
There are 12 people on the bus. 2 get off at the next stop.
How many on the bus now?

In my garden, 8 roses are in flower. Then 4 more buds open.

How many flowers now?

There are 25 children in a class. 3 children are away.

How many are in school?

Jack has 15 stickers. Sam has 3 more than Jack. How many stickers has
Sam got?

Lisa had 15 Smarties. She ate 10.

How many were left?

In cooking, we made 30 biscuits.

Molly sneaked in at play time and ate 2 of them.
How many were left?

There were 22 swallows on the roof. 19 flew away.

How many were left?

I’ve got 5p and Sally has 11p.

How much more money does Sally have?

In a skittles game, Mary’s score was 8 and Imran’s was 14.

What was the difference in their scores?

One chocolate bar costs 32p and the other costs 40p.
What is the difference in their price?

A pack of Yu-gi-oh has 20 cards. I lost 8 of them in a duel.

How many have I got left?

I went bowling this week-end. My first score was 12 and my second was 9.
What was my total score?

My grandma gave me £1. I spent 60p on some coloured pencils.

How much do I have left?

In the book corner there are 25 fiction books and 15 information books.
How many books are there altogether?

There were 16 people on the bus. At the bus stop, 10 people got off.
How many people are on the bus now?

I bought a Mars bar for 30p. I paid with a 50p coin.

How much change should I get?
26 children from YR are going to watch the Magic show in the hall.
10 children from the Nursery are also going to watch.
How many children will have seen the show?

At the post office, I bought first class stamp for 40p(?) and a second class
stamp for 32p.(?)
What is the difference in the price?

Sam bought a stamp for 26p and another stamp for 20p.
How much did he have to pay?
(These problems can easily be turned into 2 step problems by asking
how much change will be given from (say) £1.)

Class 2 with 25 children and Class 3 with 30 children went to the zoo.
How many children went to the zoo altogether?

Problems with either start or change unknown – see guidance

We started the term with 30 rubbers and now we’ve only got 8 left!
My teacher thinks we eat them.
How many have we eaten?

Alex had some conkers. He gave 10 of them to his friends. He had 20 left.
How many did he have to start with?

Each table in our class started the term with 15 coloured pencils.
Red table have only got 6 left.
How many have gone missing?

Nadia had some lovely marbles but she lost 5 of them. Now she only has 9
left.
How many did she have to start with?

Dad made some cakes. Alfie came down in the night and ate 4 of them and
now there are only 16 left!
How many cakes did Dad make?

Peter’s uncle gave him £5 for his birthday. He has £3.50 left.
How much has he spent?

There were 23 plums in the bowl and now there are only 4 left.
How many have been eaten?

Dad gave Mum a bunch of 20 lovely red roses. Some of them have died but
there are still 13 left.
How many have died?