November, 2010 | Maths Blog

Year 4 maths worksheets on fractions

Fractions form an important part of the maths for Year 4 children (aged 8/9) and often it turns out to be one of the hardest to get to grips with.

One important aspect of this is to identify equivalent fractions (in other words, that a half is the same as two quarters or four tenths is the same as two fifths etc.) This is usually introduced by using diagrams, but many children fail to see beyond the colouring of a diagram to the more abstract idea of equivalence.

Children will also work with mixed numbers, placing them on number lines and to identify pairs of fractions which total 1.

Another important skill is to recognise the equivalence between the decimals and fractions for simple fractions such as: 0.5 =a half, 0.25 = a quarter, 0.1 = a tenth and 0.01 = a hundredth.

I have published a number of worksheets to help with this and coverage is increasing steadily. Already there are pages on equivalent fractions, tenths, ordering fractions and much more. These can be found in the year 4 Counting and Number section of the site.

Go to our year 4 maths worksheets on fractions

Multiplying a decimal by a single digit

Some quick mental arithmetic work here, ideal for homework. Multiplying 0.6 by 7 is not really any harder than multiplying 6 by 7, as long as you have a good understanding of place value.

Watch out for a common error with these, an example of which is:

0.8 x 7 = 0.56

In this case, whilst the times table is known what to do about the decimal point remains a mystery. if you come across this error it would be a very good idea to go back to basics and look at multiplying and dividing by 10 across the decimal point.

This is a good page for year 6 revision but could be used by younger children who have a sound understanding of decimals. It can be found in our year 6 Knowing number facts section.

More_multiplying_decimals (1)

Text books are obsolete?

It seems that teachers believe that maths text books are becoming obsolete in the classroom, being replaced by on-line resources. Well, they have a point, where in a text book can you get over 400 maths sheets which are freely available at mathsblog.co.uk?
7 out of 10 teachers believe that investing in IT equipment is more important that spending money on text books. They also believe that children who do not have internet access at home could be ‘seriously disadvantaged’.
These findings come from a joint report from the Times Educational Supplement and the e-Learning Foundation. Interestingly, it has been published at just the time that Michael Grove is cutting back support for IT in schools.
The report suggests that children without internet access can struggle to do their homework and fall behind, but I think that this is rather too simplistic. There are many parents out there who do not wish their children to use the internet, yet provide superb support for their children. I think back to my days teaching where children from some religious groups were not allowed to watch television, but they were some of the best informed and brightest children in the class.
Read more at the Telegraph

Year 3 maths worksheet: reading scales

Reading scales is an important aspect of year 3 measurement work and I am beginning to produce material for this. Children will be used to reading scales where the divisions go up in ones, but they find it much harder when either they go up in larger numbers or when not all the divisions are numbered. This worksheet does both of these. The ruler shown is a scale drawing and each division is 10 cm, but only the 100 cm division lines are named.

Once it has been established that each mark represents 10 cm., it is relatively straightforward to work out the lengths shown. As children usually only use centimetre rulers this might be the first time they come across a ruler where not all the divisions are numbered.

Reading scales 1

Counting games for Early Years

Counting is a major part of maths in Reception and Year 1. Children should be able to say and use number names up to 10. A good example of this would be to join in nursery rhymes or songs such as

“One, two three, four, five. Once I caught a fish alive.”

Children should also be counting up in ones, up to 10 objects. This would be in a practical sense of counting a number of objects that they can touch (pieces of a jigsaw, coins, hats etc). Later they can count things they can see, but not touch (panes in a window, cows in a field etc ).They can then begin to count down from a small number e.g. 5,4,3,2,1,0.

We have a great set of fun maths games on counting for Reception/Early Years and one of my particular favourites is the Counting Goats game. This is really good practice at counting up to 5. Young children can not get too much practice with this both in the home and on the computer. They may well use their fingers to help and count out loud, but after a time they will begin to count in their heads. Adults can often glimpse at a picture to see how many there are, almost without counting – don’t expect this of 5 a year old! Don’t forget to click on the banjo playing goat at the end for a happy tune!

We have a great set of counting games, so why not have a go today?

Go to our Counting games

How to add two 3-digit numbers

This is a year 6 revision sheet to help children who are still not confident with adding. The method implies a good understanding of place value. At one time it was fashionable for schools to use square paper to carry out written sums but this has tended not to be the case in recent years, making it harder for children to line the numbers up correctly.

When using the standard written method of addition it is important to lay the sum out correctly, keeping the columns neatly in line. The method is to add the units first, put the units in the answer and ‘carry’ any tens into the tens column, underneath the answer. Then add the tens in the same way, remembering to include any ten which has been carried forward from the units. finally add the hundreds in the same way.

How to add two 3-digit numbers

SAT tests for 11 year-olds

With very little support from anybody, apart from the last Labour government, it seems that things are stirring with regard to the SAT tests for 11 year olds. Last year many teachers and schools boycotted the tests as a protest, meaning this year’s results were pretty meaningless.

Michael Grove, the Education Secretary, has been given information that suggests the curriculum for Year 6 has been badly affected by concentrating too much on getting good results in the tests. He has ordered an independent review which will be led by Lord Bew. This review should be able to report by June 2011, which will not be of much relief for all those children talking tests next summer. However, I believe it is a step in the right direction, but Grove is stating that parents will still need to know how well their local primary school is doing. Hopefully this will be judged on a wider range of issues.

Russell Hobby, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers said,

“It is wrong that a narrow snapshot of attainment can be used to judge the performance of a school….it is wrong that the education of children in primary schools is narrow and distorted.”

It seems that the governments efforts to remove quangos will take an early leap forward by getting rid of the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency, responsible for the administration of tests, with the Department for Education taking over.

Year 2 maths worksheet: graphs

Here is one of the superb sets of year 2 maths worksheets which URBrainy.com have allowed me to publish. It is suitable for 6/7 year old children who are just beginning to understand and interpret block graphs and it looks at the favourite sandwich fillings of a class:- always a popular subject.

The first page involves interpreting the results of the graph, whilst the second page is a template which can be printed and used by the child to show the results of their own survey.

it is well worth going to URBrainy as a simple log in process allows access to all their resources for a week as well as printing up to ten sets of worksheets. If you are looking for full and detailed coverage of Key Stage 1 then I can highly recommend this.

Sandwich graph

Year 3 maths worksheet: division practice

Once children have learnt the 2x, 4x, 5x and 10x tables they can put their knowledge to good use by working out division questions. Because division is the inverse of multiplication the only knowledge needed to work out 14 divided by 2 is that 2 x 7 = 14.

This is a more abstract way of working with division and children should have had a great deal of practical work sharing out coins, cubes, sweets etc before moving onto this type of question.

Division practice (1)

Resource of the Week: Multiplication of money

Here we have a straightforward worksheet dealing with the multiplication of money by a single digit. It would normally be expected to answer these using written methods. 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. (If they just use the calculator to find the answer this is quite obvious as there is no working shown!)

This page any many others can be found in our Four Rules section.

Multiplication of money (pg 1)