Part-whole activities — why they matter to your child for Key Stage 1 maths
These photos have been carefully designed to show every possible way of splitting numbers up to 10 into two parts — something teachers and mathematicians call partitioning. For example, 6 eggs might appear as 5 and 1, or 4 and 2, or 3 and 3. Play spot the differences between the eggs in the photos and you can see different ways of making each number. For example 6 eggs could be 5 small and 1 big, 4 without spots and 2 with spots, or 3 gold and 3 not gold.
Your child's school may use the term part-part-whole this is exactly the same idea but many experts prefer part-whole so that's what we use here. Your child may be familiar with one or more of the following ways of showing a part-whole model — here they all show 6 split into 4 and 2:
A part-whole model is a simple but powerful diagram that helps children see that a number (the whole) is made up of smaller numbers (the parts). When a child can look at 7 and think "that could be 5 and 2, or 6 and 1, or 4 and 3," they are building a deep, flexible understanding of number — sometimes called number sense — that underpins addition, subtraction, and later arithmetic.
This kind of thinking is central to the Key Stage 1 maths curriculum. Children who are confident with part-whole relationships find it much easier to add and subtract without counting on their fingers, to bridge through 10 (for example, knowing that 8 + 5 is easier to work out as 8 + 2 + 3, making 10 first and then adding the rest), and to understand that subtraction is the inverse of addition.These skills are foundational to maths mastery and later success in maths.
The best way to explore these part-whole activities with your child is to click a photo, choose a question, and talk about it together. Ask them to draw their own part-whole model — there is no single right answer which really helps with confidence building. Discovering all the possibilities for a number is a brilliant maths conversation to have, based n discovery it's a much better learning opportunity than any worksheet.Calling all parents and carers you don't need to be an expert maths teacher — just curiosity and a few minutes to talk together and you make a huge difference to your child's learning.
