By year 5 children are expected to know the basic number facts, including tables up to 10. They should also have rapid recall of addition and subtraction facts. We have some excellent pages to help with this, using known facts to rapidly work out answers.
Firstly there are tasks such as ‘making 50’, which include writing all the pairs of even numbers that make 50.
Then there are ‘find the difference’ questions, involving whole tens such as 150 and 80. There should be little or no time spent working this out as a previously learnt fact that 8 and 7 make 15 comes instantly to mind. After all, they have been working on questions such as these for over 2 years.
Similar techniques can be used when finding the difference between two decimals, such as 10 and 8.1. Just think of the difference between 100 and 81 for a clue to the answer.
We also include several calculator multiplication games. The point of these is not to let the calculator do the calculation, but to use it as a check for your own mental calculation. Those with a good mental knowledge will be able to pick the answers they want rather than keying in numbers haphazardly.