Adding investigation using shapes

A fun and interesting activity to consolidate adding three numbers including one 2 digit number. Children should have secure prior knowledge of adding mentally using different strategies such as doubling or counting in different steps. The task can be easily differentiated for all abilities. It offers good opportunity for teachers to facilitate the learning whilst watching how children apply learnt skills. They should be encouraged to be resilient, use trial and error and work systematically to find more than one answer. They should demonstrate reasoning skills by explain e.g how they made the total 29 using two shapes only with a value of 5 and 12. This make AFL easier for the teacher. A highly recommended task.