The Ministry is migrating nzmaths content to Tāhurangi.           
Relevant and up-to-date teaching resources are being moved to Tāhūrangi (tahurangi.education.govt.nz). 
When all identified resources have been successfully moved, this website will close. We expect this to be in June 2024. 
e-ako maths, e-ako Pāngarau, and e-ako PLD 360 will continue to be available. 

For more information visit https://tahurangi.education.govt.nz/updates-to-nzmaths

Purpose:

  • To practice subtracting 2,3,4 and 5 from 10 or 20.

You need:

  • Game board (PDF, 68KB)
  • Spinner or dice with 10,10,10, 20,20,20
  • Spinner or dice with 2,3,4,5,choose,choose
  • 8 counters (buttons, bottle tops, pebbles) per player
  • Two players

How to play:

  • Each player chooses a monster to start on and places their 8 counters on that monster's eye.
  • Each player takes a turn to throw the two dice or spin the spinners and subtract the smaller number from the larger number. For example, if they throw or spin a 4 and a 10 they would subtract 4 from 10 to get 6.
  • If they get the subtraction correct and they have that number on one of their ice creams they are allowed to put a counter on that ice cream.
  • If a player throws a CHOOSE they are able to choose a number to subtract from the largest number in order to cover any one of their ice creams.
  • If they get an answer incorrect then the other player is allowed to put one of their counters back on their monster’s eye.
  • The winner is the first player to have all their monster’s ice creams covered.

Variations:

  • Players might choose to add instead of subtract, so instead of saying 10 takeaway 4 is six they might say 4 and 6 more is 10.

Download a file of this activity:

PDF (7KB) or Word (34KB)