September, 2009 | Maths Blog

Resource of the Week: Shape for Year 5

Don’t forget to look at our Shape and Measures resources as we have some excellent pages. For year 5 we have pages on congruent shapes, scalene triangles, classifying shapes using Venn diagrams as well as some worksheets on the properties of 3D shapes.

Congruent shapes might be thought of as easy, but many children (and adults) have difficulty in identifying them. Remember, congruent shapes are shapes that have exactly the same length of sides and the same angles: if cut out they would fit perfectly on top of each other. Unfortunately, if you don’t cut them out they can be tricky to identify.

Take a look at our Year 5 Shape and Space Resources.

Year 2 Maths Worksheet: know pairs that make 20

Here we have a straightforward maths worksheet on knowing pairs of numbers that add up to twenty. This is suitable for year 2 children or those who are already very confident with knowing pairs of numbers that make ten.

If these facts are not known there are several ways of working the answers out, including:

1. Counting on from the smaller number.

2. Counting on from the smaller number up to 10 and then adding another 10. (If smaller number is below 10.)

3. Counting back from 20, which is trickier.

A good follow up to this page is to ask how many different ways you can make 20 by adding just two numbers.

Know pairs that make 20 (pg 2)

Multiplication of money (2)

This is the second of our pages on the multiplication of money by a single digit. This is good practice at using tables which have been learned already and can be completed quite quickly by those with a good knowledge. Remember to do a quick estimate of the answer before starting and checking this with the answer to ensure that the written answer is sensible.

Lay out the second set of questions in the correct way as this will make it much easier to work out.

Multiplication of money (pg 2)

Coming soon: Mental and written methods of calculating

Well, the sun is shining and its looking good for the weekend! Next week we have a sunny mixture of maths worksheets on both mental and written methods of calculating. We have our second page on written multiplication of money by a single digit, which will be found in our Four Rules section. There will also be a page on dividing by 6 mentally, which, of course is the inverse of knowing tables. This is a great time to concentrate on learning tables off by heart, which, if known, make both of these worksheets much easier to do.

There will also be a page for year 2 children on knowing pairs of numbers that make 20. Once pairs that make 10 are known this is a fairly straightforward step.

Data handling for year 4: pictogram of popular cars

Graphs are often perceived as a quite easy part of maths, but many children find interpreting them correctly quite tricky. This page looks at the most popular cars seen in a village. Each picture of a car represents 5 cars. Again 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.

Pictogram: most popular cars

Resource of the week: counting and colouring fish to total 10.

Our counting game, colouring ten fish, is great practice for young children both with counting and seeing how many ways three small numbers can total 10.

The game involves clicking on each of ten fish to make them change colour. One click changes the fish to red, two clicks turns the fish blue and a third click will make it gold.

Any fish can be coloured as long as the totals work out correctly. Just click on the ‘Go’ button to see if you have completed the colouring correctly… and there’s even a colouring page to print out at the end!

Go to our great colouring fish game.

Multiplication of money (1)

Here we have a straightforward worksheet dealing with the multiplication of money by a single digit.The main concern here is that the process is carried out much as multiplying a 3 or 4-digit number, but remembering the decimal point.

The second set of questions, from 9. to 15 should be set out in the correct way and not attempted as shown.

It is often a good idea for children to check the answers to these types of page by using a calculator.

Multiplication of money (pg 1)

Standard written addition with money 2

The second of our worksheets on using the standard written method to add money. Remember to keep the decimal points in a straight column when writing these out. it is also important to write down any zeros that occur in the answer – don’t just leave that column blank. Encourage neat setting out of these questions as it eliminates the possibility of adding the wrong numbers in a column.

I always encourage children to write a decimal point in the answer before they start the calculation as, if it is missed out, the answer will be incorrect however well it has been added up.

Standard money addition (p2)

Coming soon: addition and multiplication of money, plus pictograms for year 4

Next week we have two great pages on using standard, or efficient, methods of adding and multiplying money.

With both the addition and multiplication worksheets the crucial thing to remember is to keep the decimal points in a straight column when writing them out. It is also important to write down any zeros that occur in the answer – don’t just leave that column blank.

I always encourage children to write a decimal point in the answer before they start the calculation as, if it is missed out, the answer will be incorrect however well it has been added up.

It is often a good idea for children to check the answers to these types of page by using a calculator.

Graphs are often perceived as a quite easy part of maths, but many children find interpreting them correctly quite tricky. Our car pictogram uses a picture of a car to represent 5 cars. Again 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.

Data handling for year 4: pictogram of birds

Here we have another in our series of data handling worksheets for year 4. Each bird on the pictogram represents 5 birds. This page is a starter to show children how to complete and interpret a pictogram so that they can go on to create their own. In this case more information about the most common birds in the garden can easily be found on the internet and a hypothesis can be made as to whether a local survey would give similar results.

Pictogram: birds in the garden