Maths help for parents of children aged 5 to 11
Another page of typical SAT maths questions. Again questions 1 and 2 could have any number of possible answers and the key is to keep it simple. In both questions there is no need to be clever: answer with whole hundreds eg 200+ 200+ 400 as this will gain as many marks as 145 + 93 + 562 or any other correct answer and there is far more chance of making a slip up by making it difficult!
An extra bonus today as I felt in the mood to write a game. The first in our addition and subtraction series, where children are given a number and have to state what is needed to make it up to 5.
Dora Dino has 5 eggs somewhere. She can only see some of them, so can you help her work out how are needed to make 5.
Maths Vocabulary for Reception: Length
Words to do with length are all around us and it is an ideal subject to involve young children with. At this age standard units of measurement are not used, the important concepts are all to do with comparisons as well as understanding that shapes can have length, width and height. This is not a spelling list: more a list of words that children should have heard in a variety of contexts and words that they are beginning to use themselves to describe their world. (more…)
A similar maths worksheet to worksheet 3. Notice that questions 5 and 6 could have a considerable range of answers, all of which are correct. In question 6 the two numbers for the answer must have a difference of 61 ie the sum of the two numbers given. This is getting very close to the early algebra which children will study at their secondary schools.
Lego is 50 years old today and there have been some amazing creations across the world by the masters of lego building over these years. Ross Crawford is one such master builder in Australia with a 4 metre long copy of Sydney Harbour Bridge.
In 2006, a team at Legoland in Billund, Denmark created a model of the world’s largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380 superjumbo.
Today, Lego’s bestsellers include its Star Wars, Lego City and Bionicle ranges. But the traditional eight-stud brick is still the foundation of the business.
If you have not got any other building materials then make sure you have some lego – ideal for counting and looking at 3-D shapes as well as building anything!
Some more examples of the type of arithmetic questions that come up in the SATs. An interesting example is the question which asks to put the digits 7, 3 and 4 into the boxes to make the total of 41.
Sometimes there is more than one way to do this type of question and it is a matter of using ‘trial and improvement’ to solve it.
One good way to tackle it is to look at the units (in this case 1) and see which two digits added together will put a 1 in the units. The only option here is is to add the digits 7 and 4 (which make 11), put these in the units boxes and it is easy from there on.
The first in our series of counting two lots of things, up to a total of 5.
Farmer Giles has bought some goats to go with his cows.
Can you help him count the goats and cows?
Here is the next list of the vocabulary that children at the end of their Reception Year (4/5 years old) should be familiar with. These words are all to do with addition and subtraction.
On the link is a set of pages with each word written in a large font size which can be copied, cut out and used as flash cards or as display. Cover them with sticky back plastic or if you have access to a laminator, even better! (more…)
Written in the 1980s this is a great little story that is excellent for encouraging understanding of pairs and odd and even numbers. In this book Mr Magnolia leads a really happy life apart from one rather strange thing – he only has one boot. Written more or less as nonsense verse it appeals to children with imagination as he has a number of very strange possessions, including a frog, a toad and a newt, some exotic birds a big purple dinosaur who’s a magnificent brute. (more…)
There has been a delay in the publishing of the results of the new tests which might replace the dreaded SATs that children take at 7 and 11. Apparently there have been some unexpected patterns in the results, although both teachers and pupils have given positive feedback.
Rather than test everyone at the same time these tests will be given when the teacher thinks the child has reached a certain standard.
More on this from the BBC
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