June, 2011 | Maths Blog

Year 1 addition and subtraction

In year 1 there are several key addition and subtraction and skills that have to be learned. Addition is related to counting on which children will still need plenty of practice with. It is also important to realise that addition can be done in any order.

Subtraction is seen as ‘taking away’ or ‘finding a difference’.

We have a number of simple addition and subtraction worksheets in our Calculating section of our year 1 resources. One of my favourites is the Dice: 3 in a row game which is a simple two player game involving adding the totals when rolling two dice. A mixture of strategy and luck will help win this game.

Go to our Addition and Subtraction Year 1 worksheets

Knowing Division Facts: Year 5 maths Worksheet

There is no doubt that most children find division harder than multiplication, yet there is little real reason for this to be so. Most division questions can be turned on their head to be made to look like multiplication. For example:

30 ÷ 5 =?? can be thought as what number times 5 makes 30?

?? ÷ 6 = 7 can be thought of as 6 times 7.

60 ÷ ?? = 10 can be thought of as what number times 10 makes 60?

The key to success with division is to have a really good knowledge of times tables.

This worksheet looks at these types of division question, all with easy numbers and no remainders and is a good assessment sheet to see if division is understood and tables known.

This can be found in our Year 5 Knowing Number Facts category.

Know division facts (1)

Resource of the Week: Magic Square with negative numbers

With the Year 6 SATs all over and still a half term’s maths to get through there has never been a better time to introduce some investigations and puzzles. One of my favourites topics is the magic square, as it can be incredibly simple or extremely complex. This particular magic square is quite challenging as it involves adding negative and positive numbers, so it is a good check to see if children are confident dealing with negative numbers

The numbers to put into the squares are given on all three magic squares and on the first puzzle there is a clue that each row, column and diagonal adds up to -3.

One of the best strategies to use with these is to work out what the centre number should be and what the total of each row etc should be. it is also a good idea to cut out small squares with the numbers on so that they can be moved around the board with ease.

Please note that there are several different ways of solving these magic squares and just one way is shown on the answer page.

Magic square negative numbers

Year 3 mental arithmetic: Sets 1 and 2

I am embarking on something new this week which will hopefully grow into a really useful resource as time goes by. It is the first in a series of mental arithmetic questions aimed at Year 3.

It consists of two sets of ten questions, followed by an answer sheet. Each set is a full A4 page so that they can be used in several ways. If given orally the teacher/parent only needs to print the answer page as all the questions are included on this and the children can just write the answers or call them out. If the teacher/parent wants the child to read the questions then they can print out the question sheets as well. This could also be shown on a whiteboard.

The first set of questions concentrate on writing whole numbers, counting on and back in tens, addition, subtraction and place value.

Year 3 Mental arithmetic (sets 1and 2)

Short division of decimals (2)

Here is another page of practice on using the short method of division of decimals. With the short method all unnecessary writing down of numbers is avoided. The numbers being divided are just units and tenths which helps with getting the method correct.

One of the best ways to be fluent with this method is to talk it through out loud. Eventually this leads to talking through, ‘in your head’.

If we look at question 1 which is 7.2 divided by 3, the verbal stages are:

a. How many 3s in 7?

b. 2 times 3 is 6 so there is 2 with a remainder of 1.

c. Place the 2 on the answer line, immediately above the 7.

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 2 (usually written smaller).

f. How many 3s in 12?

g. 3 x 4 is 12 so the answer is 4.

h. Place the 4 on the answer line, immediately above the 2 (tenths).

i. Answer 2.4

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

Division of decimals (2)

Year 3 maths worksheet: Time and calendars

An aspect of learning about time that is often neglected is the use of a calendar. They do need some explanation for children who have not come across them before and they do come in various formats. The month shown on this worksheet starts the week on a Monday, although many start on Sunday. It can seem puzzling to children as to why there are some ‘blank’ days at the start of the first week so it is a good idea to have a calendar showing the whole year available.

This can lead to a great deal of discussion, such as how many days there are in each month, why birthdays fall on a different day of the week each year etc.

Using a calendar (1)

Carroll diagrams: Year 2 Handling Data

Carroll diagrams are named after the famous writer, Lewis Carroll and are a way of grouping things in a ‘yes or no’ way. They can be as simple as just two boxes but usually they are seen as four boxes with two attributes. In this case the two attributes are swimming and riding a bike and the children either can or can’t do each.

Carroll diagrams are introduced in Year 2 as a means of sorting, but it is not until towards the end of the year, or Year 3 where they would meet these types of diagram. The second page has a set of questions about the diagram and suggests that children then go on to try to collect their own data and make their own Carroll diagram from this data.

Thanks to urbrainy.com for this particular set of pages and they have a great selection of Handling data resources at their site.

Carroll diagrams 1

Resource of the Week: Year 6 converting metric units

Children in Year 6 still need plenty of practice using the metric system, in particular converting larger metric units to smaller ones. Here we are highlighting a page which looks at converting metres to centimetres, kilos to grams and litres to millilitres.

One of the trickier aspects of this is to convert a weight such as 6.09 kg into grams, which of course is 6090 g. watch out for common mistake children make of writing just 609 g.

This is one of several similar pages found in our Year 6 Measuring section of the site.

Year 6 Larger units to smaller units (1)

Impossible question in the Maths AS paper

Well, it is not uncommon for me to make a mistake with the articles and worksheets published here, but I don’t have a team of proof readers to help me. Far more serious was the error in this years Maths AS Paper.

Over 6000 students took the paper and the question with the highest number of marks was impossible to answer! The question carried 8 marks out of 72 being awarded for the whole paper. This meant that many students would have agonised over the question, wasting many minutes in futilely trying to reach a correct answer.

A spokesperson for the exam board said,

“We very much regret that there was a mistake… and that our quality assurance procedures failed to identify this error.

“Because we have been alerted to this so early, we are able to take this error into account when marking the paper. We will also take it into account when setting the grade boundaries. We have sent a letter to all schools and colleges explaining in more detail what we shall do.

“We do apologise again that this has happened.”

Obviously some of the students think that this is a less than satisfactory outcome as some would have spent much longer than others on the question, leaving less time for the rest of the exam.

6 times table space challenge

Children need as many opportunities as possible to practise their knowledge of tables and teachers are always on the lookout for something slightly different to maintain interest. Hopefully this page will be useful as it is a bright and fun way to show how well the 6 times table is known and it could also be used as a timed challenge.

Beginning at the start move to the first box and write the number 6 times that shown on the left hand side, then move on to the next box and so on. There are 20 questions altogether; some children may become ‘stuck’ on a question, encourage them to move on and then return to it at the end. If they are stuck remind them, for example, that if they cannot remember 6 x 6 it is only six more than 5 x 6 which they should be able to remember.

This page can be found in our Maths worksheets, Four Rules, multiplication section and hopefully I will be adding similar pages for other times tables before long.

6x tables space challenge