Maths help for parents of children aged 5 to 11
This is the second in our mini series on practising mental addition. This page looks at pairs of numbers that make 60. There are 8 snappy questions followed by a task to find all the pairs of odd numbers that make 60. Not too long as there are only 15 pairs of odd numbers!
If children can work out these 2-digit additions ‘in their head’ it gives them a great deal of confidence when working with larger numbers, so the practice is well worthwhile.
Many Year 6 children are not as confident as they should be with multiplication and with decimals. This week we are publishing a straightforward maths worksheet which looks at multiplying 2-digit numbers by 1 digit, with decimals.
This should be tackled in exactly the same way as multiplication without decimals, but don’t forget to put in the decimal point. Occasionally you will find children who see the decimal point as a block and will answer a question such as 2.6 x 4 as 8.24
Well, a new term is just about to begin and we have some lovely pages to help get those minds working again. Next week we are concentrating on calculating fast.
Many Year 6 children are not as confident as they should be with multiplication and with decimals so we will be publishing a straightforward maths worksheet which looks at multiplying 2-digit numbers by 1 digit, with decimals.
We will also have the second in our mini series on practising mental addition for Year 4 children. This page looks at pairs of numbers that make 60. There are 8 snappy questions followed by a task to find all the pairs of odd numbers that make 60.
Sometimes it’s useful to have a page that tests how quickly children can respond to a set of questions – and next week we have a Year 4 maths worksheet which looks at addition and subtraction of whole tens. There are 30 questions and children who have a good grasp of adding single digits should be able to transfer their skills and answer these quite quickly.
Doubling 2-digit numbers can be quite easy or fairly tricky; it all depends on the numbers. For a number such as 23, doubling is easy as the tens and units can be doubled in your head in either order and can be easily remembered.
However, doubling 37 leads to more complex mathematical thinking as at least three separate operations are needed to reach the correct answer. Probably the easiest way is to double the 30 to make 60. Holding 60 in the back of your mind add the 7 to make 67 and then add the 7 again to make 74. Another way is to double the 30 to make 60 and then double the 7 to make 14 and then add the 60 and the 14 to make 74.
There are other ways, including doubling 40 to make 80 and taking 6 away (double 3) to reach 74. It is always a good idea to see how children tackle these types of questions, ask them what they did and see if it is an efficient way.
Reading and writing fractions remain a bit of a mystery for many children, but our cunning foxes can help. This worksheet looks at how to read and write fractions from halves to tenths using numbers or words. As well as reading a fraction such as 1/3 as one third, it can also be read as a division sum: 1 divided by 3, or 1 divided into 3 equal parts, but this comes a little later.
These pages can be found in our Year 4 section, under Counting and Numbers.