Maths news
Resource of the week: reflective symetry
Reflective symmetry seems to be a very popular topic for the Key Stage 2 Maths SAT Papers and it is not easy to find examples of the kind of question which is often asked. There are several mathematical terms to do with symmetry that children need to be familiar with. These include:
Mirror line, line of symmetry, line symmetry, symmetrical, reflect, reflection, translation, axis of symmetry, reflective symmetry.
Also they should be able to test for symmetry using a mirror and by folding.
Children should be able to sketch the reflection of a simple shape in a mirror line where none or only some of the edges of the shape are parallel or perpendicular to the mirror line.
This might seem easy, but actuallyoften proves to be problematic to many children. A small mirror is a great help with this and children are supplied with one in their SAT tests if such a question comes up.
Here we have the second of a pair of worksheets which looks at sketching the reflection of shapes in the mirror lines.
Valentine’s Day maths worksheet: Subtraction
Sometimes it’s nice to have a change and special occasions such as Valentine’s Day allows us to do this. Here we have a maths worksheet suitable for Year 3 children with a Valentine Day’s theme. It is a subtraction page but all the missing numbers have to be put into the special Valentine hearts. There are also a couple of Valentine word problems.
The easiest way to do most of these subtractions is by adding on from the smaller number, once again showing the special relationship between addition and subtraction.
Thanks to urbrainy.com for letting me use this page from their vast supply of worksheets, including more on Valentine’s Day.
Telling the time in Year 2
Time is one of the most searched for subject areas on the site. By the end of year 3 children are expected to read the time on a 12 hour digital clock, and to the nearest 5 minutes on an analogue clock. They are also expected to be able to calculate time intervals and find start and finishing times for a given time interval.
This worksheet looks at working out the times of TV programmes and how long they last. Working within units of 5 minutes much of this is straightforward. However working out the start times is a little more tricky and children need to be confident with telling the time to 5 minutes.
Newspapers and TV programme listings are a really good source of material for work on time and can also result in a lot of discussion about favourite programmes etc. They can also be used as a data source for graph work.
This page and others can be found in the Year 2 Measuring category.
Resource of the week: Maths Vocabulary for Year 1
I am often asked about the words and ideas that children should be familiar with by the end of Year 1 and there is an excellent set of pages which help with this, found in the Year 1 Maths Worksheets/Vocabulary section.
If a child does not respond to a mathematical question it may be because they do not understand the words or instructions used. Another difficulty can arise when a mathematical term has a different meaning in everyday English eg ‘table’.
The following list has the new words that they should come across in school during year 1 to do with calculating and solving problems.
Words to do with calculating and solving problems:
plus near double
how much more is…? how much less is…?
subtract minus
half halve
equals sign
number sentence
operation
Further lists on Number, Measures and Positioncan be found in the
Christmas Offer From URBrainy
Here at the MathsBlog we think URBrainy.com is a great site for some really impressive resources.
This Christmas they are running a very special offer. If you subscribe during December for a yearly package you will get 18 months access instead of 12! That’s a whole 6 months extra free on their already discounted yearly rate.
Resource of the week: Christmas adding puzzle
Looking at my stats I can see that everyone is very busy with Christmas assemblies, shows, shopping, eating, drinking etc so I will shortly be joining you all and have a few days off. I will leave you with a little puzzle in case you have nothing better to do!
Put the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in the bottom layer of baubles on the Christmas tree. The next layer is made by adding the pairs of numbers below and so on up to the top.
The numbers on the bottom row can be put in any order – what order will give the highest possible total at the top?
Answer is given for those who have eaten too many mince pies.
Happy Christmas
Year 1 maths worksheet: Christmas halving
From time to time it’s nice to have a topical maths worksheet and here is one for year 1 at Christmas time.
The ability to double and halve numbers quickly is a great strategy to have at your fingertips as it can help later with all sorts of calculations. Here we have a year 1 page which looks at halving small even numbers. The theme is Christmas and there is lot’s of drawing! You might like to give a separate piece of paper so that the drawings can be done larger than on the sheet; or it could be very useful as a whiteboard activity.
Whilst I do not have a great many Christmas pages or a separate category for this I do know that urbrainy have an increasing number of them for the whole primary age range. A small selection are available absolutely free at:
http://pages.urbrainy.com/happy-christmas-2011
Halving small numbers (Christmas)
Top children’s reading books to help with maths
Over a period of time I have collected together a great selection of books suitable for young children to help them with counting and number skills. All these books are a great read in themselves, but they also all have a mathematical slant. They are rather hidden away within the Top Maths Books section and you will need to scroll down past the other maths books to find them, but if you have young children I thoroughly recommend having a look.
Books such as
The Boy who was Followed Home by Margaret Mahy all about a young boy being followed by a hippopotamus.
Handa’s Surprise set in Africa and full of exotic fruits and animals.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle, an absolute must for all young children.
Mr Wolf’s Week by Colin Hawkins is an old favourite, with an almost friendly wolf.
Not forgetting one of all time favourites, Ten, Nine, Eight by Molly Bang, each page has a warm comforting glow, perfect for a bedtime story.
These are just a few of the great reading books suggested and they can all be found at;
11.11.11.11.11 The eleventh of the eleventh..
There are times and dates, interesting times and dates and really incredibly fantastic times and dates and the good news is that we are rapidly approaching one of the all time best. You will probably not live long enough to beat this!
On the eleventh second of the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh month 2011 the date will be 11.11.11.11.11.
Wow!
There are plenty of myths flying around that something incredibly good, or something incredibly bad is going to happen, with cosmic shifts and all sorts, but I believe that there is no scientific evidence for any such thing and that nothing out of the usual will happen. Or I could be wrong! Nevertheless, it is a great date to remember and those of you who have followed this blog over the years will know that I really like the patterns these dates make.
Of course the eleventh of the eleventh is well known as the anniversary of the end of the first world war, with two minute silences held at 11 am on Remembrance Sunday.
A new movie, called, you guessed it, 11.11.11 should be released on this day.
Also quite peculiar is this little fact;
Take the last two digits of your year of birth, plus the age you will be this year. Add them together and it will be…….111!
In the binary system the number 1111111111 has a value of 1023 in the decimal system (512 + 256 +128 + 64 + 32 + 16 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 1)
Plenty of interesting patterns to explore there!
Whilst we are looking at 111…. why not have a look at this fantastic prime number:
1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111
1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111
1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111
1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111
1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111
1111111111
1111111 (317 digits)
Resource of the week: Year 4 pictogram-cars
This worksheet is suitable for Year 4 children. Graphs and pictograms are often seen as a quite easy part of maths, but many children find interpreting them correctly tricky. The pictogram displays information about the most popular cars seen in a village. All pictograms need a key so that it is clear how many each picture represents. In this case each picture of a car represents 5 cars.
Handling data should be seen as a practical activity, with deciding on what data to collect, making suitable collection sheets and recording information all key parts. This page should be seen more as a starter to go and collect data themselves and make their own pictograms. Problems might arise when the data is not in whole fives or tens. This can be solved by showing part of a car eg a wheel could represent one car. This would need to be shown clearly on the pictogram.
The worksheet can be found in our Year 4 Handling Data category, together with some other fun pictograms and graphs.
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