Support your students in developing a deeper understanding of number relationships with our Popsicle Addition: Missing Addend activity! This hands-on resource encourages students to investigate the connection between numbers in an equation while strengthening their understanding of the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction. With a fun popsicle theme, this activity turns practising missing addends into an engaging and meaningful maths experience.

In this activity, students are presented with a series of popsicle-themed addition problems where one addend is missing. Using their understanding of fact families and the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction, they must work out the missing number to complete the equation. This process encourages flexible thinking, number sense, and confidence in manipulating numbers to solve problems. It’s an ideal resource for helping students make connections between operations and for building fluency with basic facts.

Popsicle Addition: Missing Addend is perfect for small group work, maths rotations, or independent practise. The visual popsicle format provides students with an engaging way to visualise and solve the problems, supporting both conceptual understanding and procedural fluency. Whether used as part of an explicit lesson on missing addends or as a fun extension activity, this resource will give your students valuable practise in applying their number knowledge in a creative and enjoyable way.

Key Learning Outcomes:

• ✅ Develop understanding of the relationship between addition and subtraction
• ✅ Strengthen number sense and flexible thinking about number relationships
• ✅ Build fluency and confidence in solving equations with missing addends
• ✅ Promote reasoning and problem-solving through hands-on learning
• ✅ Foster independent practise and mathematical confidence

What’s Included:

• Popsicle-themed missing addend cards and worksheets
• Teacher notes with tips for classroom use and differentiation

Materials Needed:

• Printed popsicle missing addend cards and worksheets
• Pencils for recording answers
• Optional: small counters or manipulatives to support students in finding the missing number

How to Use:

1. Print and prepare the popsicle-themed missing addend cards and worksheets.
2. Introduce the activity by modelling how to use subtraction to find the missing addend in an addition equation.
3. Students work through the popsicle sums, using their understanding of fact families and the inverse relationship to solve each problem.
4. Encourage students to explain their reasoning and discuss different strategies they might use to find the missing number.
5. Use the activity during small group rotations, for independent practise, or as a fun early finisher task.

Ideas for Classroom Use:

• 💡 Include in maths rotations to provide targeted practise with missing addends.
• 💡 Use during small group instruction to explicitly teach the relationship between addition and subtraction.
• 💡 Offer as an independent activity to reinforce fluency and reasoning with number relationships.
• 💡 Use manipulatives such as counters to provide visual and tactile support for students who need it.
• 💡 Encourage students to create their own missing addend problems and swap with a partner to solve.

Top Teacher Tips:

• 💛 Model different strategies for solving missing addend problems, including using subtraction and visual representations.
• 💛 Differentiate the activity by providing a range of problems with varying levels of complexity.
• 💛 Provide number lines or fact family charts to support students who need additional scaffolding.
• 💛 Celebrate student progress and encourage them to explain their thinking aloud to build mathematical language and reasoning skills.

Popsicle Addition: Missing Addend is a fun and flexible resource that helps students explore the connections between numbers and operations while building fluency and confidence. Your learners will love the playful popsicle format, and you’ll love seeing their number sense grow!