Learning About Mr Plus In Reception Year

Earlier on in the term we started off by learning about the concept of more, which also helped the students understand the idea of counting forward and numbers getting bigger when one more is added.

This week, the students were introduced to a very popular and friendly character in Numberland, called Mr Plus.  Mr Plus likes to bring the numbers together by making friends with them and making them more. The students learnt a song about Mr Plus. Then the teacher pretended to be Mr Plus, using the students to make sums. The sums were made on the board using magnets and a whiteboard pen.

The students were reminded that the plus sign is in between the numbers to add them and the equals sign comes before the answer.  Afterwards the students came to the mat in small groups for a focus group lesson with the teacher. They used their own counters on their whiteboards to make their own sums.

The students were so excited to be making sums with counters and learnt how to check if their answers were correct. Later on they will also be introduced to picture sums and progress to using counters or their own drawings to work out addition sums with numbers.

Mathematics can be so much fun!

Bronwen Nuthall
Reception Year Teacher