Addition and Subtraction Stories with Role-Playing

Give Foundation students a concrete, story-based introduction to addition and subtraction. This complete unit uses role-play, counters, pictures and oral language before moving to simple number sentences. Students learn to recognise when groups join, when items are taken away, how many there are altogether and how many are left.

The teaching sequence supports explicit instruction, guided modelling, partner role-play and independent practice. Colour display, activity and game pages make the concepts visible and interactive. Six low-ink worksheets develop skills from supported drawing to choosing the correct operation and creating an original number story. A two-page assessment, matching answer pages and a five-level rubric support clear evidence of learning.

Both PowerPoint decks remain editable. The presentation provides 19 structured teaching slides, while the 22-slide quiz includes 10 question-and-answer pairs for whole-class checking or review.

What's included

• Editable 19-slide PowerPoint presentation: Addition and Subtraction Stories with Role-Playing
• Editable 22-slide PowerPoint quiz with 10 question-and-answer pairs
• 22-page Unit Plan PDF
• Classroom Display: Join, Take Away and Tell the Story
• Activity Mat: Act It Out - Join Together
• Activity Mat: Act It Out - Take Away
• Game: Picnic Story Path board
• Game Cards: Picnic Number Stories - 12 mixed stories
• Worksheet 1: Draw and Join
• Worksheet 2: How Many Altogether?
• Worksheet 3: Draw and Take Away
• Worksheet 4: How Many Are Left?
• Worksheet 5: Join or Take Away?
• Worksheet 6: My Role-Play Number Story
• Assessment: Teddy Bear Picnic Story Check - 2 student pages
• 7 printable answer pages for Worksheets 1-5 and both assessment pages
• Five-level Addition and Subtraction Stories rubric
• 63-page combined Preview PDF

Learning focus

• Addition as joining groups.
• Subtraction as taking away from a group.
• Acting out practical number stories.
• Modelling with concrete materials and drawings.
• Solving for the total or the number left.
• Connecting story actions to simple number sentences.
• Explaining and creating number stories.

Classroom use

Use this unit for whole-class explicit teaching, maths rotations, role-play centres, guided groups, partner practice, independent work, formative checks and a final assessment. The suggested teaching duration is approximately 1-2 weeks, with pacing adjusted for short Foundation sessions.

Formats, counts and answers

File types: PDF, PPTX and JPG

Unit Plan PDF: 22 pages

Presentation: 19 editable slides

Quiz: 22 editable slides

Combined Preview PDF: 63 pages

Answer status: 7 printable answer pages and 10 quiz answer slides included

Teacher benefits

• A clear progression from concrete role-play to pictures and symbols.
• Parallel teaching and practice for joining and taking away.
• Ready-to-use materials for whole-class, small-group and independent learning.
• Matching printable answers and quiz answer slides for efficient checking.
• Editable teaching slides for flexible pacing and revision.
• Assessment and rubric aligned to the unit's learning focus.

Digital product and licence

This is a digital product. No physical item will be shipped. The files are for use by the purchaser in their own classroom. They may not be resold, redistributed or shared as standalone files.