Maths help for parents of children aged 5 to 11
What have we got today? It’s the second in our multiplying by 3, 4, 6, 8 and 10 worksheets, suitable for year 4 children or those who are beginning to know their tables.
The best way to learn tables is to recite them out loud eg ‘4 times 3 is 12, then shorten it to, ‘4 3s are 12’, with the ultimate aim of being able to say the product for any two single digits without having to work it out.
What have we got next week? we have the second in our multiplying by 3, 4, 6, 8 and 10 worksheets, suitable for year 4 children or those who are beginning to know their tables. The best way to learn tables is to recite them out loud eg ‘4 times 3 is 12, then shorten it to, ‘4 3s are 12’, with the ultimate aim of being able to say the product for any two single digits without having to work it out – just like knowing your own name!
If you want further practice on tables then our calculator games are ideal. The idea of the game is to make a row of 4 in any direction before your opponent. Take it in turns to use the calculator to multiple chosen numbers to match numbers on the grid. This is excellent practice at multiplying and dividing by 5 mentally and then using the calculator to check answers. Suitable for year 3 upwards.
For Year 6 we have a probability page that looks at writing the probability of events happening as a fraction or a decimal fraction.
For example, the probability of getting a head when tossing a coin is 1/2, but this can also be written as 0.5. That one is easy, but many others are much trickier.
Children often find word problems very tricky, partly because they are unsure of what calculations to carry out to reach the solution. This page has a small number of word problems, but it asks for the working out to be shown and what calculation needs doing eg addition.
The first two questions require only a single step to reach the answer, but the second two need two steps, which makes them much harder.
Once children are really secure and confident with adding 9 to a 2-digit number they can quickly catch on to how to add 19, 29 etc. Once again the process is the same: add the nearest whole ten and then subtract 1. Once this has been mastered similar techniques can be used to add 2-digit numbers that have 8 in the units, subtracting two rather than one, which makes adding any 2-digit numbers fairly straightforward!
This page, and many others, can be found in our Year 4 maths worksheets under Knowing Number Facts.
This is a nice mini investigation using coins for children who are familiar with coins and counting. A yoyo costs 8p, but how many different ways are there of paying using 1p, 2p and 5p coins?
Suitable for Year 1 children it is a good idea to have a selection of these coins handy so that they can count out and record the different combinations. A separate page is available for recording either by drawing or writing the amounts down. An important aspect of this type of work is to check that the same result has not been recorded twice.
This is a follow up page to our earlier worksheet on rounding for year 5 children.When rounding to the nearest thousand the key digit is the hundreds digit. If it is 5 or more round up to the next whole thousand. If it is less than 5 then take away the hundreds tens and units and leave the number ’rounded down’.
With practice children should be able to round numbers quickly and also begin to see what is a sensible rounding. Should it be to the nearest hundred, thousand or ten thousand?
Here we have a follow up page for the year 6 maths worksheet on square numbers published on Thursday. Further practice at remembering square numbers and using this knowledge to work out square numbers of multiples of 10.
Next week we will have another page suitable for Year 5 children on rounding.When rounding to the nearest thousand the key digit is the hundreds digit. If it is 5 or more round up to the next whole thousand. If it is less than 5 then take away the hundreds tens and units and leave the number ’rounded down’.
We will also have a nice year 1 mini investigation using coins for children who are just becoming familiar with coins and counting. A yoyo costs 8p, but how many different ways are there of paying using 1p, 2p and 5p coins. It is a good idea to have a selection of these coins handy so that they can count out and record the different combinations. A separate page is available for recording either by drawing or writing the amounts down. An important aspect of this type of work is to check that the same result has not been recorded twice.
Even in Year 6 children often find word problems very tricky, partly because they are unsure of what calculations to carry out to reach the solution. This page has a small number of word problems, but it asks for the working out to be shown and what calculation needs doing eg addition.
The first two questions require only a single step to reach the answer, but the second two need two steps, which makes them much harder.
By Year 6 children are expected to know the square of numbers up to at least 10. This page provides some revision of this together with some extension work on finding square numbers of multiples of 10. Care needs to be taken when finding these. For example, because 50 is 5 x 10, the square of 50 can be broken down into 5 x 5 x 10 x 10 which makes 250 x10 which is 2 500. Keep an eye out for some children who think it is just 250.
This page can be found in our Year 6, Knowing number facts section. It is also a useful page for the year 6 planning: Block B, Unit 3, week 2 for those teacher viewers.
Number squares can be a great way to show some of the fantastic and fascinating patterns that numbers can make. We are used to the 10 by 10 number square but, of course, they can be any size and the different sizes can create different patterns when counting on. For example, the first number square on this maths worksheet is a 6 by 6 square. When the multiples of 3 are coloured we get two vertical lines of colour. However, when using a 7 by 7 square, the pattern changes. Why is this?
This type of exercise can be used many times and soon children should be able to predict the kind of pattern that will be made, as well as having some practice with learning their tables!