Year 1 have begun exploring fact families using the part-part-whole model. We have been learning how numbers belong together and how we can use them to make different number sentences.

We started by looking at the part-part-whole model, where one big circle (the “whole”) is connected to two smaller circles (the “parts”). We talked about how the two parts join together to make the whole number.

For example, if our whole was 8 and our parts were 5 and 3, we discovered that:

• 5 + 3 = 8

• 3 + 5 = 8

• 8 = 5 + 3 
• 8 = 3 + 5

The children enjoyed using buttons, bears and cubes cubes to build their own part-part-whole models.