MA 4.06Subtraction Snake Game

1. 1

   Lay a snake of five or six colored bars with one gray bar placed in it. Say: 'The gray beads are taken away.'

2. 2

   Count along the colored beads to ten with the marker card and exchange for a golden ten bar, as in the Addition Snake Game. Set the counted colored bars in a row above the snake.

3. 3

   When you reach the gray bar, count its beads. Then count back the same number of beads along the snake, starting just before the gray bar.

4. 4

   Remove the gray bar and every bead counted back. If the count back ends partway along a bar, replace the part that stays with a black-and-white bar of that number.

5. 5

   Set the gray bar in its own row above the snake.

6. 6

   Continue counting to ten and exchanging until no colored or gray bars are left in the snake.

7. 7

   Count the golden bars and any black-and-white bar to read what is left.

8. 8

   Check: count the colored beads set aside, take away the gray beads set aside, and compare with the final snake.

What catches the child’s eye

• The gray bars standing out among the colored ones
• Counting back along the snake bead by bead
• The snake turning golden piece by piece

Extensions, easiest to hardest

1. Longer snakes with two or three gray bars.
2. Child records each take-away step as an equation (10 − 3 = 7).
3. Child writes the whole snake as one equation (6 + 8 − 4 + 5) with its answer.