Month: November 2011

11.11.11.11.11 The eleventh of the eleventh..

There are times and dates, interesting times and dates and really incredibly fantastic times and dates and the good news is that we are rapidly approaching one of the all time best. You will probably not live long enough to beat this!

On the eleventh second of the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh month 2011 the date will be 11.11.11.11.11.

Wow!

There are plenty of myths flying around that something incredibly good, or something incredibly bad is going to happen, with cosmic shifts and all sorts, but I believe that there is no scientific evidence for any such thing and that nothing out of the usual will happen. Or I could be wrong! Nevertheless, it is a great date to remember and those of you who have followed this blog over the years will know that I really like the patterns these dates make.

Of  course the eleventh of the eleventh is well known as the anniversary of the end of the first world war, with two minute silences held at 11 am on Remembrance Sunday.

A new movie, called, you guessed it, 11.11.11 should be released on this day.

Also quite peculiar is this little fact;
Take the last two digits of your year of birth, plus the age you will be this year. Add them together and it will be…….111!

In the binary system the number 1111111111 has a value of 1023 in the decimal system (512 + 256 +128 + 64 + 32 + 16 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 1)
Plenty of interesting patterns to explore there!

Whilst we are looking at 111…. why not have a look at this fantastic prime number:

1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111
1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111
1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111
1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111
1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111
1111111111
1111111 (317 digits)

Resource of the week: Year 4 pictogram-cars

 This worksheet is suitable for Year 4 children. Graphs and pictograms are often seen as a quite easy part of maths, but many children find interpreting them correctly tricky. The pictogram displays information about the most popular cars seen in a village. All pictograms need a key so that it is clear how many each picture represents. In this case each picture of a car represents 5 cars.

Handling data should be seen as a practical activity, with deciding on what data to collect, making suitable collection sheets and recording information all key parts. This page should be seen more as a starter to go and collect data themselves and make their own pictograms.  Problems might arise when the data is not in whole fives or tens. This can be solved by showing part of a car eg a wheel could represent one car. This would need to be shown clearly on the pictogram.

The worksheet can be found in our Year 4 Handling Data category, together with some other fun pictograms and graphs.

Pictogram: most popular cars

Key Stage 2 SAT questions

We roll on with the next two questions taken from the Paper A 2010 SATs. These two questions involve fractions and perimeter.

20.  5/8                                      One mark for this question.

Unambiguous indications will also be accepted as correct eg a tick next to 5/8.

Suggested method:

The standard recommended way to do this question might be to convert them all so that they all have the same common denominator. In this case it would be quite time consuming and a little further investigative work might prove to be easier.

Firstly the answer has to be greater than a half. For a fraction to be more than a half the top number (numerator) has to be more than half of the bottom number (denominator). Looking at each fraction in turn this counts out 2/5, 1/3 and 3/6 so a faint line can be put through these. That just leaves 7/8 and 5/8.

Now, 3/4 is equivalent to 6/8 (multiply numerator and denominator by 2) so the answer has to be 5/8.

21. 18 cm
2 marks for a correct answer.

If the answer is not correct a mark can be awarded for working out that shows an understanding of the process. (eg 50 ÷ 2 = 25. 25 – 7 = ‘wrong answer’.)

Suggested method:
The perimeter of a shape is made up of the length (twice) and the width (twice). Probably the easiest way to do this question is to divide 50 cm by 2. This will give the total of the length and the width.

50 cm ÷ 2 = 25 cm.
The width is 7 cm so the length must be 25 cm – 7 cm = 18 cm

Another way could be:
to double the width: 7cm x 2 = 14 cm.
Take 14 cm from 50 cm = 36 cm
Divide 36 cm by 2 = 18 cm.

Questions 20 and 21 Maths Paper A 2010

Questions 20 and 21 answers and suggested method

 

Four Nations Maths Challenge

For those of you who love the Mathletics, ‘World Maths Day’, then you will no doubt be interested in the Four Nations Maths Challenge.

Schools and parents can register now for the event which will take place on 17-18 November but if they are already registered for Mathletics then they can use their existing sign in details.

Competition can be a great way to encourage mathematics and many schools have found that entering maths events can improve children’s motivation and attainment.

Just visit the Four Nations Maths Challenge website at: www.fournationsmathschallenge.co.uk

Inspired by the Six nations Rugby tournament, competition will be fierce as children take part in maths challenges. The first day they complete a number of challenges and on the second day they compete against other students. it is open to children of all ages across the primary and secondary age ranges.

 

Bonfire night maths worksheet: percentages

Thanks to urbrainy.com for letting me publish this page. There are more bonfire night pages on their site, which you can trial free of charge at urbrainy.com

It’s always nice to have something topical to use as part of the maths curriculum. Here we have a page on percentages, linked to the theme of bonfire night, or fireworks.

Four different kinds of fireworks are on sale, with 20% off. The questions involve working out how much the boxes cost and how much in the way of savings can be made.

Finding 20% is relatively straightforward if done in two parts:

first find 10% by dividing by 2

find 20% by doubling the answer.

You can find this page in my Year 6, Understanding Number section.

Thanks to urbrainy.com for letting me publish this page. There are more bonfire night pages on their site, which you can trial free of charge at urbrainy.com

Bonfire night percentages

Year 3 mental arithmetic

It is easy to miss this growing set of resources for year 3, tucked away in the Know Number Facts category of the year 3 section. If you are working with year 3 children this is a very useful set of mental arithmetic questions.

So far there have been 24 sets of questions published and further sets will be published for each of the next two terms. They 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 for a whole class to work on at the same time.

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)

Question 19 from SATS Paper A 2010

Dotty paper and right angles are a favourite with the SAT paper writers, but they never make it quite straightforward, as the right angle to be found or drawn is never along horizontal or vertical lines.

There are just two possible answers to this. Either answer will gain one mark.
Slight inaccuracies in drawing are allowed. This means within a radius of 2mm of the correct point.

Some children will instantly see where the right angle will be, but there are several ways to make it easier.
One way is simply to turn the paper so that the line AB is running horizontally in front of you. This makes it easier to perceive a right angle.
Another approach is to use a right angle, such as the corner of a piece of paper and slide one edge of the paper along the line AB, with the corner at A and then mark where the other edge crosses a dot.
Don’t forget that a ruler must be used.
Why not visit ks2-maths-sats.co.uk for free SATs papers and a great SAT revision programme?

Question 19 from SATS Paper A 2010

Question 19 answer and suggested methods