Understanding the relationship between addition and subtraction is a vital part of maths in Year 3.

Our latest sets of worksheets look at this in detail, with the help of part-whole models and bar models. An important part of this to point out to children is that there are two different subtractions using the inverse of addition.

For example, from 45 + 12 = 57 we can say 2 things;

that 57 – 12 = 45 and 57 – 45 = 12

One of the main reasons why understanding this inverse relationship is important for children is that it allows them to check an addition calculation with a subtraction and vice versa, rather than repeating the original calculation and risk making the same mistake again.