What’s the Question?

Skills:Addition, subtraction, algebra

Resources: A variety of concrete resources to support addition and subtraction

Activity: Give pupils any number between one and ten, for example, 6. Explain that ’6’ is the answer but you do not know what the question is.

  • Ask pupils what the question might have been if it was an addition question?
  • What if it was a subtraction question?
  • Give pupils the opportunity to come up with lots of different possibilities for what the question might have been using different operations.

Challenge Questions:

  • Have you found all possibilities? How do you know?
  • Can you find all possibilities if all the numbers used in the question were less than 20?