Month: January 2011

Year 4 maths: Time (1)

Here we have a selection of questions all involving time, suitable for Year 4 children. The questions cover a range of knowledge including:

1. Counting in minutes crossing the hour boundary

2. Knowing the number of days in the month

Some are quite tricky, especially those where days are counted, crossing over a month. A calendar would be useful for this.

This would be a useful assessment sheet or homework activity. It can be found in our Year 4 maths worksheets, in the section Using and Understanding Maths.

Solve problems with time (1)

Year 6 maths worksheet: extending number sequences

Number sequences are still a very important part of maths in Year 6 as they begin to lead on to algebra. Here we have a page where the next two numbers need to be added to the sequence and then a quick explanation of what the rule for the sequence is, in words.

The best way to tackle these is to work out what is happening from the first number to the second: is it getting bigger? By how much? etc and then see if this also applies from the second to the third number, and so on. When it is an addition or subtraction this is quite straightforward. However, if it is a multiplication or division (including doubling and halving) this is harder to spot. With addition and subtraction the difference between numbers stays the same;  with multiplication the difference increases.

This page can be found in our Year 6 maths worksheets, in the Using and Applying Maths section.

Extend number sequences 1

Resource of the Week: 3D Shape

On this free maths worksheet is some pretty hard work concerned with prisms.

(A prism is a solid figure whose bases or ends have the same size and shape and are parallel to one another, and each of whose sides is a parallelogram.)

It is a good idea to try and collect a variety of prisms so that their properties can be explored in detail.

Look out for interesting shaped boxes eg a toblerone packet is a triangular prism.

There are some interesting facts about prisms such as the number of faces is always two more than the number of edges on the end. Other facts are included on the answer page.

Visualise 3-D shapes

The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl

The Enormous Crocodile
review by mathsblog.co.uk

The Enormous Crocodile by R Dahl

If you want to introduce your child to some mathematical words involving shape and have enormous fun whilst doing so, then ‘The Enormous Crocodile’ by Roald Dahl is just the book for you. But you do have to have a delicious liking for cruel humour and not mind rather tasteless endings!
Typical of Dahl’s writing, with name calling, suspense and a horribly vile villain, it is probably best left for the over threes. You might find that your children become horribly addicted to the story and want it read to them time and again!
In short, the crocodile tells the other animals that he has some clever tricks up his sleeve to eat some juicy children. Indeed they are clever tricks, but one by one the hippo, monkey etc ensure that his plans are thwarted and the greedy croc comes to a suitable end!
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Year 3 Know number facts

It is an exciting time where fast progress is made, but a great deal is expected of children and what they should know in year 3. They are expected to  know the 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x and 10x tables and recognise multiples of 2, 5 and 10 right up to 1 000. They should also be able to multiply numbers by 10 and 100 and say what the effect is. By the end of the year they should be able to add or subtract mentally combinations of one-digit and two-digit numbers, such as 36 + 70.

Our Know number facts worksheets can help to establish this knowledge and also play a part in assessing how well children know these facts.

Go to our Year 3 Know Number facts resources

Year 3 maths worksheet: half way

On the face of it this looks quite a simple task, but many children (and adults) find it very tricky to work out what half way between two numbers is. Often there is a lot of ‘trial and improvement’ going on in people’s heads as they guess their way towards finding half way.

Two methods make the task fairly straightforward.

For method one a number line is very useful to start with. Put a finger of the left hand on the first (lower) number shown on the number line and a finger of the right hand on the second number. Then move the left hand finger one place to the right and the right hand finger one place to the left. Repeat this until the two fingers meet – that is your half way number.

The second way of finding half way involves two steps:

step 1: add the two numbers.

step 2: halve the answer.

This is the better method as it works for all numbers, not just those shown on the number line.

This page can be found in our Year 3, Counting and Number section

Half way between_(1)

Year 6 maths worksheets: Understanding Number

The Mathsblog section on year 6 maths worksheets, Understanding Number, has a growing number of worksheets covering a wide range of topics. The work expected in Year 6 is very challenging as numbers are used in ever increasing and decreasing sizes. Rounding numbers right up to millions is included, together with rounding decimals and estimating and approximating numbers.

There is also some excellent pages on fractions, as well as relating fractions, percentages and decimals. Prime factors are also introduced. Keep an eye out on this section as it is updated with new worksheets being added on a regular basis.

For a lot of Year 6 children this work will prove too tricky and I would advise looking at some of the earlier year groups for suitable material, in particular year 4 and 5.

Go to our Year 6 Understanding Number worksheets

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

It teaches about counting, ordering, time and days of the week as well as a little science! Each page is a new day and each day the caterpillar eats one more piece of food

CaterpillarThe Very Hungry Caterpillar (Picture Puffin)
This is the book which has inspired many young children. An absolute must for children from one upwards, although I am pretty sure that you will have come across it before.Put simply, a story about how a little egg, on a leaf in the moonlight becomes a hungry caterpillar who eats and eats and eats until finally turning into a beautiful butterfly.

Make sure that you get the large size book as the holes in the pages which the caterpillar has eaten through are great for young children to explore.
It teaches about counting, ordering, time and days of the week as well as a little science! Each page is a new day and each day the caterpillar eats one more piece of food.
The BBC has written news stories about this book including that it has been said that one copy a minute has been sold since it was released in 1969.

Mental arithmetic: dividing by 100

It’s January, and the beginning of a new year, but the sharp brains may have been dulled a little over the last week, so why not satart the new year with a little mental arithmetic? Here we our highlighting the next worksheet in our series of dividing mentally. This page looks at dividing larger numbers by 100. All the numbers are multiples of 100 so there will be no decimals involved with the answers. As has been said before, but the idea has to be repeated many times for children to fully understand; to divide by 10, move each digit one place to the right. To divide by 100 move each digit two places to the right.

So 1200 divided by 10 is 12.00. There is nothing wrong with leaving the two zeros after the decimal point, but we usually don’t worry with the decimal point or zeros if the answer is a whole number. Whatever you do, don’t tell your children to take away the noughts!!

This, and many other division worksheets, can be found in our Four Rules section as well as in the year group sections under calculating.

Divide by 100 (pg1)

Four rules: Subtract from multiples of 10

Mental arithmetic is the core of successful number work and much can be done without resorting to written methods. Subtracting a 2 digit number from a multiple of 10 can be done ‘in your head’, but it does need care and using an efficient method.

Let’s look at:

50 – 27

Probably the easiest way to do this is by ‘counting on’.

Step 1:  Count on from 27 to the next whole ten (30), which is 3. Hold the three in your head for later.

Step 2: Count on in tens from 30 to 50, which is 20.

Step 3: Add the 20 to the 3 which is 23.

50 – 27 = 23.

(You will often find that children give the answer as 33 rather than 23. That is usually because they have counted on from 20 to 50 which is 30 and then added another 3 to get 33, ignoring the adjustment of the tens.)

Free maths worksheets below:

Subtract from multiples of 10 (p1 and p2)