Category: Maths news

There’s a variety of maths worksheets coming next week, including mental addition with money, counting on and data handling.

The addition of money worksheet involves adding pounds and pence mentally. When working mentally it is usual to add the pounds first and then the pence, which, of course, is the opposite of the way we do a question on paper.

Some of these questions involve more than one stage and it might well be a good idea to jot down intermediate answers. For example, when working out the cost of 3 items jot down the answer to the cost of the first two before adding the third. This also makes it easier when checking that answers are correct.

The counting on worksheet is very similar to the year 4 ‘count on in tens’, but this time it is counting on in whole hundreds, again suitable for Year 4. Most of these questions cross the thousands boundary and provide good practice at reading larger numbers.

We will also be having another worksheet which uses tally charts, both interpreting them and providing ideas for children to use their own tally charts.

You all know how I like interesting dates and we are rapidly moving towards another fascinating date.

On the 9th second of the 9th minute of the ninth hour of the ninth day of the ninth month of the ninth year the date will be:

09 09 09 09 09 09 .

To you and me that’s the 9th of September 2009.

If you are teaching these kinds of dates can lead to some fascinating maths investigations – how long before the next time this happens? What similar dates are likely to come up soon? etc.

This week we have two worksheets on data handling. One looks at interpreting a tally chart on illnesses which people had when they were children. As well as answering questions which can be worked out mathematically it is important to try and use the data to draw some conclusions. So it is a good idea to discuss the results shown and think whether they show a trend or are they saying anything significant about the world we live in e.g.

The second is a bar chart of a type which children may not have come across before. It shows the frequency of events; in this case the frequency of the number of goals scored by ‘The Albion’. The term ‘mode’ is used, which means the most common as well as other terms such as ‘maximum’. These types of graph are quite tricky to interpret and is most suited to Year 5.

We also have another page on standard addition with money – don’t forget those decimal points!

Next week we have a page explaining how to subtract 19 from a 2-digit number. The easiest way to do this is usually to take twenty and then add one and is much quicker than using pencil and paper methods. We will also be publishing the second of our adding two 4-digit numbers using the standard written method. Also coming soon is a page of money problems most suited to Year 3 children.

With just a week or two left of the long summer holiday it’s probably not easy to think about maths, but just 10-15 minutes in the evening can just clear the cobwebs, ready for a new year!

The emphasis is on mental arithmetic next week. We continue with our mental arithmetic series on addition by looking at adding 29, 39 and 49 to 2-digit numbers. Also there is a tricky page on adding decimal fractions mentally, suitable for Year 5.

We also have our second in a series of time worksheets, looking at how long it is between two times which are at least one hour apart, using both digital and analogue clock faces.It is often useful to make jottings with these types of question, whether you count on the hours or the minutes first.

Talking of time, how the summer holiday seems to have flown by and it is only a couple of weeks before its back to school.

Next week we will have an excellent maths worksheet showing how to do standard written addition with 4-digit numbers. Also there will be a page on finding lengths of time using both analogue and digital displays. Time is often a stumbling block for many children, especially when asked to find how long it is between two times.
There will also be mental arithmetic for Year 5 children on adding decimal fractions – by  no means easy! Great practice over the holiday at keeping those mental arithmetic skills razor sharp!