In this activity, we will carry out simple subtractions by counting back.
Examples
Work out the subtractions.
500 - 6 = ____
5,000 - 6 = _____
Answers
To work out 500 - 6, we count back from 500 to get 494
To work out 5,000 - 6, we count back from 5,000 to get 4,994
Don't worry that these are big numbers - drawing just a part of a number line will help you to picture what you need to do.
Let's practise this in the questions that follow.