Resource of the Week
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
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
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;
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.
Resource of the Week: Rounding to the nearest million
One of the earliest posts that I made, back in 2007 was about rounding large numbers, up to millions. Many children are fascinated by large numbers and these two pages can help them both with reading and writing large numbers and rounding.
Thanks to mathsphere.co.uk for letting me use these resources, as they are taken from the ‘it’s All Figured Out’ CD.
Larger numbers can be rounded in just the same way as rounding hundreds or thousands; the key is to refer to the digit below the one you want to round.
Eg rounding to a million, look at the hundred thousand digit:
2 345 456 is rounded down to 2 000 000 (two million) to the nearest million because the hundred thousand digit is only 3.
2 987 654 is rounded up to 3 000 000 (three million) to the nearest million because the hundred thousand digit is 9.
There are plenty of good sources in geography, such as population figures, areas of countries etc
Rounding to the nearest million (pg 1)
Rounding to the nearest million (pg 2)
Year 1 addition game
Early years teachers are great at coming up with resources to help with addition, without them just being rows of sums. The teacher writers at urbrainy.com have come up with some excellent resources for year 1, including this great little board game for two people which involves both using a strategy and knowing addition facts. It is best played with one adult and one child, but beware you may lose! You will need 2 dice, 2 sets of 5 different coloured counters or cubes plus a calculator and the games sheet.
Decide who is to go first.Player one goes first and rolls the two dice. Add up the total and place a counter on a square showing that number. If the number has already been covered it becomes the next players go. Then player 2 has their turn. Some numbers, such as 7, come up on the grid several times (as there is a greater chance of throwing a 7 than any other total) so it is important to think about which 7 the counter is placed on.
The winner is the first person to put three counters in a row, across, down or diagonally. Sometimes it is more important to block the opponent than to try to create your own 3 in a row.
This game can be found in our Year 1 Calculating category
Resource of the Week: Congruent shapes and scalene triangles
Today we look at two mathematical terms which are less commonly known. Firstly, congruent is a word to conjure with! In fact it has a very simple meaning. If two shapes are congruent then they are identical in every way, including size.
Whilst this is very straightforward, unfortunately people who design maths tests papers make this as difficult as possible, as children are expected to be able to spot congruent shapes even when one of a pair has been turned. By far the easiest way to spot two congruent shapes is to cut one out, or trace it and see if it fits exactly over the other – if it does it is congruent. On this worksheet the aim is to find pairs of shapes which are congruent, and as always, the answers are provided! I do recommend the tracing option!
The second term is scalene. Most people are familiar with equilateral triangles and isosceles triangles but the term scalene triangle is the one that is most frequently forgotten. Quite simply, a scalene triangle is one which has no sides the same length and no equal angles.
These two worksheets can be found in the Year 5, Shape and Measures category.
Resource of the Week: Writing larger numbers
Writing large numbers in words is not easy but by the end of year 5 many children will be confident enough to read numbers in the millions.
In the past, in the UK, a billion has been considered as a million million, but in the USA a thousand million has been thought of as a billion.
This seems to be the norm in the UK these days as well so Neptune at 4 500 000 000 km from the sun can be said as “four billion, five hundred million km “.
Some children become fascinated by larger numbers and like to count on up to trillions and beyond, even to the googol which is a 1 with one hundred zeros!
(10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000)
Resource of the Week: Maths from Stories
Maths from stories.
Hidden away on the mathsblog site is a superb selection of story books to help with early reading. These are all great books for young children to read, but an added bonus is that they all have a mathematical aspect to them. One of my favourites is The Very Hungry Caterpillar which I am sure you are all familiar with.
Another favourite is The Shopping Basket by John Burningham which is a great little book which will be thoroughly enjoyed by young children whilst at the same time helping them with counting and subtraction. Steven is a little boy who is asked by his mum to go round to the local corner shop, taking the shopping basket with him to bring back 6 eggs, five bananas, four apples….etc
Others include Mr Wolfe’s Week by Colin Hawkins, Jim and the Beanstalk by Raymond Briggs which helps with the mathematical language of shape and size, Two by two by Barbara Reid and Ten, Nine, Eight by Molly Bang.
To find this colection you need to go to the Top Maths Book heading at the top right of the blog and scroll down past the less interesting maths books. Some of the books are quite obscure and difficult to buy new copies, but they are all highly recommended and worth the effort to find.
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