1 - Getting Started ~3 mins
Dublin have 7 points on the board. Kerry have 4. Which team is ahead, and by how many? Look at these two cube towers, 7 red and 4 blue, to help you see the gap.
2 - Watch and Notice ~10 mins
Our towers were 7 and 4. Those same numbers sit on the number line.
Start just after 4. Hop to 5, then 6, then 7. That is three steps. So 7 is 3 more than 4.
We write it with the take-away sign: 7 − 4 = 3. The answer 3 is the difference: how many more. Nothing went away; we only compared.
Before we count the last pair, think: how many more is 10 than 8?
3 - Try It Together ~9 mins
Let's try it on our number line. Mark two numbers and count the steps between them.
Try pairs such as 3 and 6, 6 and 10, 7 and 11, or 9 and 14.
Mark two numbers and find the gap
4 - Class Challenge ~8 mins
Four quick scoreboard pairs. For each one, read the two numbers, count the gap, then place the marker on how many more.
- 5 and 3
- 8 and 5
- 10 and 6
- 12 and 9
Find the difference
5 - What Did We Notice? ~4 mins
Look at 7 − 4 = 3 beside our gap of three steps. We never took a cube away. How did the take-away sign still tell us how many more?
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