Maths news | Maths Blog

Resource of the Week: Writing larger numbers

Writing large numbers in words is not easy but by the end of year 5 many children will be confident enough to read numbers in the millions.

In the past, in the UK, a billion has been considered as a million million, but in the USA a thousand million has been thought of as a billion.

This seems to be the norm in the UK these days as well so Neptune at 4 500 000 000 km from the sun can be said as “four billion, five hundred million km “.

Some children become fascinated by larger numbers and like to count on up to trillions and beyond, even to the googol which is a 1 with one hundred zeros!

(10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000)

Free Y5 maths worksheet: writing larger numbers

A study of maths achievement in the UK, led by Carol Vorderman, has a number of interesting points to make.

Firstly it claims that there is a systematic failure in the subject, with 300 000 children leaving school at 16 unable to function efficiently with maths in their personal lives or at work. Many pupils leave school unable to complete even the most basic sums needed for everyday life, such as adding up the change in their pocket and calculating household bills.

Secondly, we are around two years behind children in the Far East and are less likely to study maths at a higher level than in most other developed countries.

Thirdly she suggests that all students should study a form of maths up to the age of 18.

Finally and this is a point that I have been arguing for many years, she suggests a new functional maths for 14-16 year olds who struggle with maths. Rather than take the old GCSE they should study maths which will be useful to them in the real world, such as percentages and fractions.

Other recommendations include:

1. Rebranding maths as a “subject of critical importance” to ensure it is given higher status to other disciplines.
2. Encouraging the use of maths in other primary school subjects to ensure adding, subtracting and dividing becomes part of a “daily routine” for all children from the age of five.
3. Offering parents crash courses in the subject at school amid claims too many adults have a “fear of mathematics”.
4. Creating new syllabuses spanning the last year of primary school and start of secondary education to overcome the dip in performance between the two key stages.

Maths Level 4 SAT results improve

The steady improvement in KS2 SAT results continued this year, according to the Department for Education figures. Last year 79% reached at least Level 4. This year the figure rose to 80%.

There are however, several points that need to be raised about these results. Originally level 4 was talked of as being an average for 11 year old children. Now everyone is expected to reach at least this ‘average’, which is unrealistic and mathematically it would mean that the average will surely rise. Some children who work really hard but don’t reach the level can feel a great sense of failure rather than a sense of achievement.

The second point is that it hides the differences between girls and boys, which is even more marked in the English results. The question why so many boys struggle has yet to be answered and until more male teachers are recruited into Primary Schools I am sure that little will change.

In a similar vein a study published today (AptiQuant) suggests that those peple who use Internet Explorer have a lower than average IQ! Those using Chrome, Firefox and Safari have higher IQs and users of Camino and Opera came out on top. What does this mean? Probably absolutely nothing!

Resource of the Week: Maths from Stories

Maths from stories.
Hidden away on the mathsblog site is a superb selection of story books to help with early reading. These are all great books for young children to read, but an added bonus is that they all have a mathematical aspect to them. One of my favourites is The Very Hungry Caterpillar which I am sure you are all familiar with.
Another favourite is The Shopping Basket by John Burningham which is a great little book which will be thoroughly enjoyed by young children whilst at the same time helping them with counting and subtraction. Steven is a little boy who is asked by his mum to go round to the local corner shop, taking the shopping basket with him to bring back 6 eggs, five bananas, four apples….etc

Others include Mr Wolfe’s Week by Colin Hawkins, Jim and the Beanstalk by Raymond Briggs which helps with the mathematical language of shape and size, Two by two by Barbara Reid and Ten, Nine, Eight by Molly Bang.
To find this colection you need to go to the Top Maths Book heading at the top right of the blog and scroll down past the less interesting maths books. Some of the books are quite obscure and difficult to buy new copies, but they are all highly recommended and worth the effort to find.

Go to Maths from Stories

Resource of the Week: multiplying 2-digit numbers by 9 mentally.

A great deal is made of written methods of multiplication but it all depends on having good mental arithmetic skills.In fact much that might be done on paper can actually be done ‘in your head’.

A good example of this is that you can multiply most 2-digit numbers by 9 in your head. The most efficient way to do this is to multiply the number by ten and then subtract the number. For example:

46 x 9

First of all multiply 46 by 10 which is 460.

Then subtract 46 from 460 which is 414.

This maths worksheet shows how to do this and then gives some practice questions – but, a word of warning, you do have to be pretty good at subtraction to use this method.

Thgis, and much more can be found in the Four Rules category.

Multiply by 9 mentally (1)

Year 1 maths resources

All the maths worksheets for Year 1 are to be found by clicking on the Free Maths Worksheets link at the top of the page. The worksheets have been organised into categories following the guidelines of the primary Framework for Mathematics, although this is now under review.

The categories are:

Counting and Number: looking at counting small numbers in steps of one and writing numbers.

Know number facts: counting on and back in twos and knowing addition facts to 5.

Calculating: including adding small numbers, taking away and an introduction to money

Understanding shape: at this stage recognising triangles, rectangles and squares as well as introducing some 3D shapes

Measuring: using non standard measures and comparing

Handling Data: mainly making lists

Using and Applying Maths: making number stories and investigating.

Whilst there is a considerable amount here it is next to nothing compared to the URBrainy site which is the best that I have found online, with over 1700 colourful pages of maths for Year 1, including full answers.

Go to our Year 1 maths resources

Resource of the Week: Reflective symmetry

There is quite a lot of work done in Year 6 on symmetry and the subject often comes up in the Key Stage 2 SATs.

Some of this involves important vocabulary and by the end of year 6 children should know and be able to read, write and use the following quite tricky words:

Mirror line, line of symmetry, line symmetry, symmetrical, reflect, reflection, translation, axis of symmetry, reflective symmetry.

Also they should be able to test for symmetry using a mirror and by folding.

Children are expected to sketch the reflection of a simple shape in a mirror line where none or only some of the edges of the shape are parallel or perpendicular to the mirror line.

This might seem easy, but actually prove problematic to many children. A small mirror or tracing paper can be a great help with this.

Year 6 maths worksheet: reflective symmetry

Maths Resources: Written Addition

One of the most popular parts of the site for parents is our Free Maths Worksheets: Four Rules pages on written addition.

Many parents think that the methods they were taught at school (and for many this would be in the mid 1990s) are different from today. This is only partly true. Since the onset of the Numeracy Strategy and later the Primary Framework for Maths the emphasis has been on preparing children properly so that they understand the written methods they use. So there is a lot of preparation work and methods often called, ‘Moving towards the standard written method’ that may not be familiar to parents, but the end result is pretty much the same. It is these intermediate stages which some parents find puzzling.

The standard written method is to lay out the sum vertically, with the numbers to be added under each other. The units are added first, then the tens and so on. We have several worksheets which explain this method in full.

Go to Written Methods of Addition

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

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