Maths game for reception: Make 5

An often overlooked part of our site is the maths games category for Reception/Year 1. Here we have a number of simple maths games including this, the first in our addition and subtraction series, where children are given a number and have to state what is needed to make it up to 5. Ideal for a quick few minutes adding on practice. A simple print out is available after 5 questions, which is useful to show what has been done.

You can go to Reception/Year 1 maths games to play all our games.

Dora Dino has 5 eggs somewhere. She can only see some of them, so can you help her work out how many are needed to make 5.

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Two more years of maths

It might sound like their worst nightmare for many teenagers, but Michael Grove has just announced that students who do not achieve a good GCSE pass in maths will be forced into continuing to study the subject until they do, or at least until they are 18. A good GCSE pass is considered to be Grade C and last summer 45% of 16 year olds failed to reach this standard. Also the CBI have stated that more than one third of businesses are unhappy at the level of numeracy shown by college leavers.

Following a review by Alison Wolf the government intends to bring in this change from 2015, so it will directly effect those children who at present are in the Upper Primary stage. Could the thought of an extra two years studying maths prove to be an incentive to study harder now? Possibly, but children’s long term planning has generally always been poor and I am not sure I would like to be the teacher taking the maths for the extra two years!

Year 4 Counting and Number

Year 4 is where you can really see children take off with their maths knowledge and understanding. They can deal with larger numbers, and show their understanding by partitioning, including numbers in the thousands. Place value is crucial to this understanding as is being able to multiply and divide by 10 and 100.

Fractions also play a much more important role, with much time spent on equivalent fractions (the key to all understanding of fractions) which can then lead on to addition, subtraction of fractions in later years.

Why not visit our Year 4 Counting and Number worksheets. There are over 30 in total, covering place value, partitioning, fractions, decimal fractions and negative numbers.

Go to Year 4 Counting and Number worksheets

Number Ladders: 0 to 10

Our ‘Useful resources’ for maths category has been rather neglected so I thought I would try and build up these resources over the coming weeks. Something which early years teachers find very useful are Number Ladders from zero to ten. Here are two number ladders, one featuring butterflies and one cars.

They can be used in a variety of ways for helping with counting on and back, simple addition and subtraction. It is a good idea to cut them out and laminate them, or use sticky back paper to make sure that they last a long time.

0 to10_number ladders: butterflies

0 to10_number ladders_cars

Short division of decimals (1)

Here is a page of practice on using the short method of division of decimals. The numbers being divided are just units and tenths which helps with getting the method correct.

There are arguments for and against putting the decimal point in before you start, or leaving it until you have reached that point in the question. it does not matter as long as it is inserted correctly.

One of the best ways to be fluent with this method is to talk it through out loud. If we look at question 2 which is 4.5 divided by 3, the verbal stages are:

a. How many 3s in 4?

b. 1 times 3 is 3 so there is 1 with a remainder of 1.

c. Place the 1 on the answer line, immediately above the 3.

d. Place the decimal point just above the answer line so it can be clearly seen.

e. The remainder 1 is placed just in front of the 5 (usually written smaller).

f. How many 3s in 15?

g. 3 x 5 is 15 so the answer is 5.

h. Place the 5 on the answer line, immediately above the 5 (tenths).

i. Answer 1.5

This page can be found in our Four Rules, Division category.

Division of decimals (1)

Year 5 subtraction worksheets

Here are two worksheets to help assess whether children have a good grasp of subtraction.

They revise the following concepts:

Subtraction is the same as taking away, finding the difference between, and complementary addition.

Subtraction is non-commutative.

When a larger number is subtracted from a smaller number, the answer is negative.

Subtracting a number from another makes it smaller.

Subtracting zero makes no difference to a number.

Subtraction is the inverse of addition.

By year 5 children should have good mental strategies for solving subtraction problems.

These pages, and other similar can be found in our Year 5 subtraction category.

Revise understanding subtraction (1)

 Revise understanding subtraction (pg 2)

8 times table practice

Here we have another in our series of Rocket tables sheets. This time it is the 8 times table, which is one of those tables that many children never really get to learn ‘off by heart’. This page makes a good check sheet to see whether the table is known: if it is then it will take little time to complete. If the table is not known then much more time will be needed.

It can be argued that the 8 times table can be derived from doubling the 2x table and then doubling again.Of course, this is true, but it just takes too long.

This can be found in our Maths Worksheets, Four Rules section.

8x tables space challenge

Year 6 maths worksheet: adding fractions

My first addition of fractions page was very popular and I have had  several requests for more, as it does take some time and re-inforcement to get the hang of this concept. I believe that adding fractions is one of the hardest topics for children to understand, mainly because it involves so many steps.

Remember, to add two fractions the denominator has to be the same: this requires a good understand of equivalent fractions, so make sure that this is fully understood before attempting addition. Once this has been done the addition is easy, as the denominator stays the same and just the top numbers (numerators) are added.

This will result in a vulgar fraction eg 14/10 which needs to be converted to a mixed number.

As there are ten tenths in one whole one this makes 1 and 4/10.

Finaly the fraction can be simplified: 4/10 is the same as 2/5 so the final answer will be 1 and 2/5.

This page can be found in our Year 6, Calculating category.

Adding fractions that total more than 1 (pg 2)

What maths should children know by the end of Year 6?

This is the final article in our series on what maths children should know, although I will be returning to this theme again and again in the future.
Much of the work carried out in year 5 eg addition and subtraction will need to be reinforced and is not covered in these targets for year 6. Please note that this is only a summary of the key areas of maths to be covered in the year. Some of the work here will be too difficult for many year 6 children: it is very much a set of targets published by the Primary Framework rather than a realistic review of what children can actually achieve. It does give you a good idea of what teachers are hoping to achieve with their children by the end of year 6.
I believe that if a child can successfully meet these challenges then they have a very bright future in maths ahead of them.

Counting and understanding number:

By the end of year 6 children should
• be able to add or subtract using negative numbers in contexts such as temperature.
(eg The temperature is -7 degrees. It rises by 3 degrees. What is the new temperature?)

• understand decimals up to thousandths and partition numbers.
(eg 4.567 = 4 units + 5 tenths + 6 hundredths + 7 thousandths.)

• round decimals.
(eg round 4.56 to the nearest tenth.)

• order decimals up to 3 decimal places and place them on a number line.
(eg order these numbers: 0.7, 0.77, 0.707.)

• understand and use improper fractions.
(eg recognise that 8 pieces of a 5-piece chocolate cake is 8/5 or 1 and 3/5.)

• simplify fractions by cancelling.
(eg 6/10 = 3/5.)

• write one quantity as a percentage of another.
(eg write £30 as a percentage of £300.)

• find equivalence between percentages, decimals and fractions.
(eg 1/10 = 10% = 0.1.)

• solve simple problems involving ratio and proportion.
(eg Sarah has 15 sweets. She gives Tasha 1 sweet for every 4 she keeps herself. How many sweets does Tasha get?)

Knowing and using number facts:

By the end of year 6 children should
• use knowledge of tables to multiply decimals.
(eg multiply 0.6 by 8.)

• use knowledge of tables to divide decimals.
(eg divide 4.8 by 8.)

• use knowledge of tables to work out square numbers up to 12 x 12.
(eg the square of 11?)

• use knowledge of tables to work out the squares of multiples of 10.
(eg the square of 30?)

• understand that prime numbers only have two factors and identify prime numbers up to 100.
(eg what is the next prime number after 17?)

• find the prime factors of 2-digit numbers.)
(eg find the prime factors of 12.)

• use various methods to check answers to calculations, including rules of divisibility.)
(eg if the sum of the digits of a number is divisible by 3 then so is the number.)

Calculating:

By the end of year 6 children should
• mentally add decimals.
(eg 4.5 + 3.2)

• mentally subtract decimals.
(eg 5.4 – 3.8)

• mentally multiply decimals.
(eg 3.6 x 5)

• mentally divide decimals.
(eg 4.5 divided by 9.)

• use efficient (standard) methods to add numbers, including decimals.
(eg £6.78 + £9.85)

• use efficient (standard) methods to subtract numbers, including decimals.
(eg £9.78 – £5.85)

• use efficient (standard) methods to multiply numbers, including decimals.
(eg 345 x 67)

• use efficient (standard) methods to divide numbers, including decimals.
(eg 456 /8)

• relate fractions to multiplication and division.
(eg 8 divided by 2 = ½ of 8 = 8 x ½)

• know the term quotient and state as a fraction or a decimal.
(eg 54 divided by 5 = 10.8 or 10 and 4/5.)

• find fractions of whole numbers.
(eg find 4/5 of 60.)

• find percentages of whole numbers
(eg find 60% of 48.)

• make sensible use of a calculator to solve multi-step problems.

Understanding shape:

By the end of year 6 children should
• classify 2-D and 3-D shapes according to their properties, including recognising parallel and perpendicular sides/edges.
(eg know the diagonals of a square intersect at right angles.)

• become increasingly accurate when drawing or making shapes.

• be able to reflect, translate and rotate shapes through 90 degrees or 180 degrees.
(eg sketch the reflection of a 2-D shape on a grid.)

• use co-ordinates in the first quadrant to draw and complete shapes.
(eg sketch the position of a triangle after it has been translated 2 units down.)

• learn to use a protractor to measure and draw angles.
(eg draw an angle of 45 degrees.)

• calculate the angles in a triangle.
(eg if two angles of a triangle are 60 and 70 degrees, calculate the third angle.)

Measuring:

By the end of year 6 children should
• choose and use to a suitable degree of accuracy metric units of measurement.
(eg measure 450 ml of water in a jug.)

• convert between units using decimals to two places.
(eg change 3750 ml to 3.75 litres.)

• recognise that measurement is approximate and decide on the necessary degree of accuracy when measuring.
(eg measure the length of a tray to the nearest 1 cm.)

• calculate the perimeter and area of rectangles.
(eg know the formula for finding the area of a rectangle.)

• estimate the area of irregular shapes by counting squares.
(eg count any square more than half covered as a whole square and any less than half as zero.)

Handling data:

By the end of year 6 children should
• use the language of chance or likelihood to describe and predict outcomes.
(eg answer the question; what is the probability of throwing a 5 with a 1 to 6 dice?)

• collect, sort, process and present data to solve a problem and interpret the results.
(eg find the most common period of time that goals are scored in the Premier League.)

• construct frequency tables, bar charts, line graphs and pie charts to show results of investigations.
(eg show frequency table for times of goals scored.)

• identify the difference between discrete and continuous data.
(eg draw a line graph in which intermediate values have meaning.)

• use the terms mode, range, median and mean.
( eg know that mode means the most common.)

Using and applying mathematics:

By the end of year 6, when investigating, children should
• choose appropriate operations to solve multi-step problems.

• decide whether to calculate mentally, on paper, or by calculator.

• use tables to show the steps taken.

• record results and check accuracy.

• suggest plans and lines of enquiry.

• review methods used.

• begin to use simple formulae in words and then symbols.

• explain orally, in words or diagrams their reasoning and conclusions.

Mangahigh free for schools

In a very exciting development, I have just heard that Mangahigh is going to be absolutely free from tomorrow for schools to use. In fact, going to the site, it is free now!! From tomorrow the mangahigh.com games-based resources will be completely free for UK and Irish schools. Previously Mangahigh charged for access but they feel that a free service is more attractive for teachers.

Toby Rowland, CEO and founder of mangahigh said,

‘We know that schools across the UK and Ireland are short on funding, and the situation may get worse before it gets better. That’s why we think it’s the perfect time to launch a completely free maths resource for schools.’

Incorporating more than 45000 maths questions and 11 unique maths games as well as powerful analytic tools it must be well worth a visit.

mangahigh