Category: Maths news

Next week we have a follow up Year 6 maths worksheet to one published earlier, which looks at multiplying 2 digit numbers with a decimal point by one digit numbers. Nothing complex about this but it is a good check that children are confident with this before moving on to long multiplication using written methods. It is also a good test to see how well ‘tables’ are known as children who have a fast recall should be able to whizz through these quite quickly.

It is important to show children the relationship between multiplication and division as this makes division so much easier. We will be publishing a page for Year 3 which shows that if you know one multiplication fact you can quickly work out two division facts.

By Year 4 children should be quite familiar with the main metric units of measurement and to check this we have a straightforward page on metric units coming soon.

Followers of the site will know how much I love fascinating dates and we have another coming up this week. This date happens just once a century, so it is unlikely that many of us will be around to see the next one!

On the 10th second of the tenth minute of the tenth hour on the tenth day of the tenth month in the year 2010 the date will be:
10.10.10.10.10.10

(That’s the 10th October 2010)

But I am not alone. There are plenty of other people equally fascinated by dates and this particular date has led to a flurry of international activity. I will mention just two events which will be happening on the 10.10.10.

Firstly,  celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the children’s book, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner. This is one of the best books written for the 9-11 age group.  There will be special events at a weekend festival on Alderley Edge. If you haven’t read it and you like books about legends, then I highly recommend it.
Secondly, is your chance to document the World’s Story. On October 10, 2010 (10.10.10), across the planet, documentary filmmakers, students, and inspired citizens will record the human experience over a 24-hour period and contribute their voice to the largest participatory media event in history. This is known as ONE DAY ON EARTH.

Next week we will be publishing the second year 6 maths worksheet which looks at probability as a fraction and then as a decimal fraction. A calculator would be useful to do the conversion and it is suggested that the answer should be displayed to 2 decimal places.

By year 4 most children will be confident with the concept of remainders after dividing. The next step is to ‘neaten up’ the division so that there is no remainder. What is left becomes part of the answer as a fraction. We have a great worksheet coming up which concentrates on writing remainders as fractions.

Also coming soon is another calculator game for two players concentrating on the 9 times table. As well as the calculator you will need the printed grid and some counters. This is most suited to year 5 children who should be confident with the 9 times table and be able to concentrate on strategies to win.

Next week we will have a Year 6 maths worksheet on division with decimals, which is a good test of how well children can manipulate numbers and use their knowledge.

16 divided by 2 is easy: 8

1.6 divided by 2 can cause all sorts of problems, but, of course is 0.8.

When I try to do a question such as 2.5 divided by 5 I mentally calculate 25 divided by 5 and then divide the answer by 10 ‘in my head’ by moving each number one place to the right. There are other ways but this seems quite efficient.

For younger children a neat way to show division is to use a number line and ‘hop along’ in equal steps of whatever the number is you are dividing by.  There are no remainders to the answers on this forthcoming page, but it is also a good way to show why remainders occur if there are not enough numbers to ‘hop along’.

We will also be publishing a second page of questions on adding and subtracting multiples of 10, which year 4 children should be able to take on and answer rapidly.

Understanding factors and multiples is something many children fail to grasp. Next week we have a page for year 6 children on factors and how to find all the factors of a number. The process is fairly straightforward, but can be quite time consuming. A good knowledge of tables and division is also needed. So if children’s knowledge of tables is weak, if they find division difficult and if they have little staying power then it is unlikely that they will enjoy trying to find factors of numbers!

Children generally find division harder than multiplication. This is often because the process involves multiplying to find the answer, especially with pencil and paper methods. Next week, however,  we will be publishing a page aimed at rapid answering dividing by 10 questions using mental methods.

Remember, dividing by ten is the inverse of multiplying by ten. To multiply by 10 move each digit one place to the left. To divide by ten move each digit one place to the right.

Dividing by one might seem a bit obvious to us, but it is not always the case for children who don’t yet have a good understanding of division. So for year 3 we will be publishing a page concentrating on dividing by one.

The calculator can prove to be a great tool for those who are fascinated by numbers and next week I will be publishing give us just one example of this.

It uses simple division sums to produce interesting recurring decimals. For example:

1/9 is 0.111111

Great for year 6 children who are really developing a good understanding of decimals.

For younger mathematicians there  are a couple of techniques which help with being able to double mulitples of 5 quickly ‘in your head’.

Firstly any 2-digit multiple of 5 which is also a multiple of ten (eg 60) is straightforward as only the tens digit needs to be considered. Why not log into our Doubling page on Tuesday to find the second technique?

I will also be publishing the next in our series of calculation activities to encourage knowledge of tables. It concentrates on multiples of 8 and like the other games we have published the aim is to cover a row of four squares. Some of the answers are quite tricky to find, such as finding what number multiplied by 8 makes 112? Suitable for year 5.

In the classroom there seem to be two types of child: one type that always has a hand up to answer a question; and the other type that avoids eye contact and doesn’t answer out loud. For teachers, it is much easier for the lesson to flow if she keeps asking those who will answer, so the cycle is repeated.

On BBC later this month Dylan Williams bans hands up in the classroom apart from when asking a question. Instead he asked any of the children. Resistance occurred and the end result was that mini whiteboards were issued on which all pupils wrote their answer.

This is certainly not new – I was using them 10 years ago, and the Victorians used slates! It does raise the issue of participation in the classroom, with a great fear amongst many of giving the wrong answer and being made to look a fool. It also only really works for ‘closed’ questions which can only have one possible short answer. With the introduction of new technology such as ipads how long will it be before all answers are recorded and processed? Some children would love it and some would hate it

Read more from the BBC