Adding and subtracting – Year 2 maths lesson
Lesson 7 of 16 in the Year 2 maths course
UK version. UK school years, UK spelling and pounds (£). · US Math Department
A complete 45-minute lesson for Year 2 (ages 6–7) that runs on this page – at school or at home. Every answer is marked straight away, with a worked explanation.
- Time
- 45 minutes + 15 min homework
- Year
- Year 2 (ages 6–7)
- You need
- Paper, a pencil and this page
- Marked
- Instantly, with explanations
For parents: how to use this lesson
You don't need to know this topic yourself. The lesson explains each step on screen, one tidy step at a time. Every answer is marked straight away with a worked explanation, so you never have to mark anything.
- Read what your child will learn and the big ideas together.
- Press Start the lesson below and sit with your child for the teaching and the worked examples (about 19 minutes).
- Let them do the practice on their own. They choose Getting started, On track or Challenge – start on On track and move up after a few right in a row.
- Finish with the exit ticket and the talk question: “Why can you add in any order, but not subtract in any order?”
- Later that day or the next day: the homework (15 minutes), then a practice test.
Watch out for
- Adding the tens digit to the ones digit. Write the tens and ones in columns, or partition first.
- Taking the smaller digit from the bigger one in every column (53 − 28 = 35). Exchange a ten for ten ones when there are not enough ones.
Tip for home: Add up the scores in a game, and work out how many more points are needed to win.
What your child will learn
We are learning to add and subtract numbers in my head and on paper, using tens and ones.
Success looks like
- I can add two numbers using tens and ones.
- I can subtract, exchanging when I need to.
- I can check with the inverse.
Key words
- add
- put together to find the total
- subtract
- take away, or find the difference
- difference
- how much bigger one number is than another
- inverse
- the opposite operation that undoes it
What to have ready
- Paper and a pencil
- This page on a computer, tablet or phone
- For the hands-on part: Make both numbers with tens and ones. Push them together to add, or take some away to subtract, exchanging a ten for ten ones when you need to. No blocks? Draw tens as lines and ones as dots.
The big ideas (for the adult)
To add, you can count on from the bigger number, or add the tens and then the ones: 34 + 25 is 30 + 20 and 4 + 5.
To subtract, you can count back, or find the difference by counting up from the smaller number.
Adding can be done in any order, but subtracting cannot: 9 − 4 is not the same as 4 − 9.
The lesson, step by step
| Part | Time | How it is checked |
|---|---|---|
| Starter: quick recall | 5 min | Marked by Classfern |
| Teaching input | 10 min | Not assessed, self-checked |
| Worked examples and guided practice | 9 min | Not assessed, marked by Classfern |
| Independent practice | 15 min | Marked by Classfern |
| Plenary and exit ticket | 6 min | Marked by Classfern, self-checked |
Starter, "your turn", practice and exit ticket are marked by Classfern. Worked examples and teaching are not assessed. The hands-on task and the reflection are self-assessed. Explanations in talk are judged by the parent and not recorded.
The lesson
It runs here on the page. No sign-up and no names – progress is kept only in this browser.
Homework and practice at home
15 minutes: 8 practice questions, 3 multiple-choice questions and 2 to remember from earlier work, then a short reflection. New questions every time, all marked instantly.
More practice
More Year 2 maths lessons
- Counting in 2s, 5s and 10s
- Tens and ones
- Numbers in words
- Comparing numbers
- Number lines
- Number bonds to 10 and 20
- The equals sign and missing numbers
- Adding and subtracting word problems
- Multiplication and division
- Recognising fractions
- Counting money
- Telling the time
- Measuring length, mass and capacity
- Shapes, position and turns
- Tally charts, pictograms and block diagrams
Curriculum
National Curriculum for England, Year 2: “applying their increasing knowledge of mental and written methods”
National Curriculum for England, Year 2: “a two-digit number and 1s”
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Our lessons and questions are our own. They are not written or endorsed by any government department, testing agency or exam board.