Column subtraction, 3- & 4-digit numbers - Teaching Presentation - Year 4

This presentation provides three days of teaching that cover the objectives:

• Use column subtraction with 3- and 4-digit numbers
  It includes starter activities, whole class teaching, group activities, practice sheets and mastery questions. It can be used on a variety of interactive whiteboards.

Day 1 Teaching
Write 543 – 357, 347 – 178 and 481 – 235 on the board. Discuss in pairs which will have the largest/smallest answer. Take feedback on estimates. Children help you use compact column subtraction to find 543 – 357; model expanded method for any children who prefer. Children complete the other 2 subtractions, comparing answers with estimates.

Day 2 Teaching
Ask children to talk you through the steps in expanded column subtraction to find 5927 – 3456 (don’t forget to recombine the answer). Point out that this is really no harder than subtracting 3-digit numbers; there are just more subtractions to do along the way. Children to come up with - and solve - a subtraction where we only need to move a 10 to the 1s; then a subtraction where we only need to move a 1000 to the 100s.

Day 3 Teaching
A plane is flying at 9240 metres above sea-level. It descends 1425 metres. Show children how to use expanded column subtraction to work out the new height, taking time to discuss the 2 moves across PV columns. Repeat for a new descent, introducing the compact method for the same calculation alongside.

This teaching is part of Hamilton’s Year 4 Addition and Subtraction block. Each Hamilton maths block contains a complete set of planning and resources to teach a term’s worth of objectives for one of the National Curriculum for England’s maths areas.