In year 4, addition and subtraction focusses on formal written methods of columnar addition and subtraction, progressing to 4 digit numbers, estimating and checking answers and solving addition and subtraction problems.
This page aims to provide you with all the Year 4 Addition and Subtraction National Curriculum objectives, along with some guidance for each objective and a range of games and activities that can be used to meet the learning objective in a play-based way.
Teaching Year 4 Addition and Subtraction:
| National Curriculum Objective | Things to think about … | Playful Learning Games |
| Add and subtract numbers with up to 4 digits using the formal written methods of columnar addition and subtraction where appropriate. | Children will have practised column addition and subtractions with 2 and 3 digits in year 3, including exchanges so this can be recapped before moving onto 4 digits. Try to expose children to adding subtracting numbers with a different number of digits. Ensure children start from the ones column with both addition and subtraction and practise with and without exchanging. | Calculate and Find Highest Total |
| Estimate and use inverse operations to check answers to a calculation. | Children have been exposed to estimating and the inverse operation in previous years. Some more detailed lessons on rounding may be needed to help support estimating – see my place value games for activities to support this. Bar and part-whole models are useful tools to use to support learning about the inverse operation. It’s important to refer to real-life situations when teaching estimations and inverse so that children understand why it is important to understand and use it. | Estimation Tic Tac Toe Inverse Operation |
| Solve addition and subtraction two-step problems in contexts, deciding which operations and methods to use and why. | Children will need to be able to choose a method that they have learnt to solve a problem. They will also need to check their answer using a different method. Children should be supported to explain how they have solved a problem and why they have chosen a particular method. Using pictures and symbols can be a good way to explain a thought process. | Word Problem Puzzle Match the Vocab Maths Story Dice |