Following on from the excellent work of Nick Hart I have been using this resource/method to help children to break SATs problems down into steps.Please read Nick's blog post 'Throwing Out That Old RUCSAC' in conjunction with this resource:
 
https://thisismyclassroom.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/throwing-out-that-old-rucsac/
 
This resource relies on the children having basic understanding of bar modelling for the 4 operations but does not require them to produce complex bar models for complex questions as the idea is that each step of the SATs question can be represented by its own bar model.
 
This resource encourages children to think what the answer will look like before calculating anything and it asks them at each stage exactly what it is they have calculated to help them to decide if they have actually completed all the steps of the problem.
 
I have included example SATs questions which can be used with this method for years 1-6.Also included are 4 more scaffolded examples which give a short instruction for each step of the problem.