June, 2013 | Maths Blog

Year 2: Time. What can you do in one minute?

Getting a clear concept of amount of time is important for young children. This page challenges children to complete a number of tasks in one minute, such as how tall a tower can be built using blocks/lego etc.

An important part of this is to make sure that they make an estimate/guess before starting which shows how realistic they are about time. One minute is a short time, but it is surprising how much can be achived in just 60 seconds!

This resource can be found in our Year 2 measurement section.

One minute

Days, months and years

As children progress through year 3 and into year 4 it is expected that they get to know and number of facts to do with measuring time, other than just reading the time on a clock face. These facts include knowing that:

1 year = 365 days or 52 weeks or 12 months

1 week = 7 days

1 day = 24 hours

1 hour = 60 minutes

1 minute = 60 seconds

hey should also be able to use a calendar and write the date correctly.

This will then progress onto knowing the number of days in each month. There are several ways of doing this. I prefer the ‘knuckle trick’ of putting both fists together , knuckles upright and then reciting the months going from left to right – tops of knuckles have 31 days, dips don’t.

The rhyme below can also be helpful:

30 days hath September

April, June and November,

All the rest have 31,

except in February alone

which has but 28 days clear

and 29 in each leap year.

Da ys months and years

Resource of the week: Maths Game of Strategy:

The importance of playing games with children to aid their mathematical thinking cannot be stressed too much. Playing games improves logical thinking and thinking ahead. This great little game, which I have called ‘Three Hexagon’ is a variation of ‘Three in a row’ games, played on a hexagonal board. All you need to do is print the board out, perhaps cover it with sticky back plastic to make it last longer and get two sets of 3 counters.

The rules are straightforward:

This is a game for two people.
Each player has three counters.
The aim of the game is to get the three counters in a straight line.
The player going first places a counter on one of the circles.
The second player then places one of his/her counters on a circle. This continues until all the counters have been placed.
If neither player has got 3 counters in a straight line then the first player slides a counter along a line to a circle that is not already covered.
The other player then slides a counter to an adjacent circle. Counters can only move along one line into an empty space. They can not jump over counters.
If a player can not move a counter she/he misses a go.

The more you play this game the more you realise that there are techniques to help with winning. Good luck!

Three hexagon game

Ordering lengths of time in Year 2

It is in year 2 that children really get to grips with time. Targets include telling and writing the time to five minutes, including using terms such as quarter to and quarter past the hour. They are also expected to be able to compare and sequence lengths of times, which is where this worksheet comes in. It looks at ordering lengths of time and uses both time in minutes and the quarter and half hours. Children will need to know that half an hour is thirty minutes and a quarter of an hour is 15 minutes.

Order lengths of time

Thanks to urbrainy.com for giving persmission to use this page.

Single step word problems for year 6

know1 Below are two pages of maths problems written in words. They are known as ‘single step operations’ as only one mathematical process is necessary to solve them. Children find word problems very difficult, but the one step type are much, much easier than the two step.

Children need to be able to read and understand problems written in prose that include elements of real life, either at home or at school. They need to be able to see what processes are necessary to solve it and then lay out their answer clearly, giving some explanation. If they have had plenty of practice at writing their own number stories in earlier years they will now find these much easier.

Single step operations (pg 1)

Single step operations (pg 2)

Counting across 100

The latest draft version of the Primary Maths Programme of Study includes counting to and across 100, which has usually been left until year 2. It is quite tricky and shouldn’t be covered until you are certain that children can count confidently up to 100.

Here is a worksheet aimed at helping with this, counting three, four or five more in steps of one and crossing the hundred boundary in each case. Thanks to urbrainy.com for letting me adapt one of their pages.

Count across one hundred

Year 5 Knowing multiplication facts to help with division.

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 and knowledge of times tables used to work them out. 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. if times tables are not known sufficiently well children will spend more time than necessary trying to work these out.

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

Know division facts (1)

Year 3: More missing numbers

I have had a number of requests for more pages similar to the ‘Find the Missing Numbers’ published in May, so here is another.

The questions are all similar:

e.g. Find a pair of numbers with a sum of 7 and a product of 12.

Pairs of numbers with a sum of 7 are:

1 and 6

2 and 5

3 and 4

(it is not necessary to go on to 4 and 3 etc) as these have already been found.

Pairs of numbers with a product of 12 are:

1 and 12

2 and 6

3 and 4

Look for the same pair and the answer is 3 and 4.

Find the missing numbers (2)