Looking for a way for your students to practise their inverse operation skills? You need our fun and flexible Fact Family Houses: Addition & Subtraction Activity! This hands-on resource is designed to help students explore the relationships between addition and subtraction through visual, tactile, and engaging activities.

Using the fact family house mats and matching cards, students will create sets of related addition and subtraction facts. They’ll gain a deeper understanding of how numbers are connected and how one operation can be used to check the other. Students can write their facts directly on the mats using whiteboard markers, and use ten frames with coloured counters to model each equation before recording it on the included worksheet. This activity encourages exploration, discussion, and fluency with fact families.

This resource is ideal for small group maths rotations, independent practise, or even a teacher-led strategy session. With a variety of components and print options included, you can customise the activity to suit your classroom setup and student needs. It’s low prep, easy to differentiate, and engaging for learners of all levels!

Key Learning Outcomes:

• ✅ Identify and represent related addition and subtraction facts
• ✅ Understand the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction
• ✅ Use concrete materials to model fact families
• ✅ Write equations using numbers from a fact family
• ✅ Strengthen number sense and operational fluency

What’s Included:

• 6 Fact Family House Mats (high and low colour options)
• Fact Family Number Cards
• Ten Frames Template
• Student Recording Sheet

Materials Needed:

• Printed mats and number cards (preferably enlarged to A3)
• Write-and-wipe sleeves or lamination for repeated use
• Whiteboard markers and erasers
• Double sided or two coloured counters
• Printed ten frames and student recording sheets

How to Use:

1. Place the fact family mat into a write-and-wipe sleeve and choose a number card.
2. Use the ten frame and coloured counters to represent the two addends and total.
3. Write two related addition and two related subtraction facts on the mat.
4. Record all four number sentences on the student worksheet.
5. Repeat with different number cards or challenge students to create their own.

Ideas for Classroom Use:

• 💡 Use during numeracy rotations for fact family fluency practise.
• 💡 Add to your small group station with different sets of cards for tiered support.
• 💡 Pair students up for collaborative modelling and discussion of each fact family.
• 💡 Use the recording sheet as a formative check-in or homework task.
• 💡 Add themed decorations or student drawings to the houses for a class display.

Top Teacher Tips:

• 💛 Store mats, cards, and ten frames in a labelled folder or tray for easy access.
• 💛 Colour code the number cards based on difficulty or focus number range.
• 💛 Challenge early finishers to write a story problem to match one of their fact families.
• 💛 Use photos of student models and written facts to document progress in portfolios.

Fact Family Houses: Addition & Subtraction Activity is a hands-on and effective way to help your students explore the relationship between operations and build lasting confidence in their number knowledge.