Resource of the Week | Maths Blog

Resource of the Week: Booster page for Year 6 SATs.

Don’t forget that we have some excellent ‘booster’ pages for children who will be doing their SATs this summer. Here we have some examples of the type of arithmetic questions that come up. An interesting example is the question which asks to put the digits 7, 3 and 4 into the boxes to make the total of 41.

Sometimes there is more than one way to do this type of question and it is a matter of using ‘trial and improvement’ to solve it.

One good way to tackle it is to look at the units (in this case 1) and see which two digits added together will put a 1 in the units. The only option here is is to add the digits 7 and 4 (which make 11), put these in the units boxes and it is easy from there on.

Thanks to MathSphere for letting us use this worksheet.

Booster maths worksheet 3

Resource of the Week: Measuring using the metric system

Thanks to MathSphere and Mathsgogo for these two worksheets which show how much easier the metric system is than the old Imperial system. Take length for example: no 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard or 1760 yards in a mile. It’s all tens, hundreds and thousands! By Year 4 (8/9 yrs old) children should know the standard units of measurement for length, including the abbreviations.

mm (millimetres) cm (centimetres) m (metres) and km (kilometres) .

They should also know that:

1 kilometre = 1 000 metres

1 metre = 100 centimetres or 1 000 millimetres

1 centimetre = 10 millimetres

These facts really do have to be learned, but it is not too difficult as they are all multiples of 10, unlike the old Imperial system!

They should also be developing their understanding of what is the best unit to use: eg what is the most suitable unit to measure the length of the garden?

It is not so easy to find real life situations where kilometres are used – certainly in athletics, cycling races etc, but unfortunately our roads are still signposted in miles – but that issue is for another whole series of blogs!

Why standard units?

Using kilometres and millimetres

Resource of the Week: Year 4 bar charts

Don’t forget that we have a growing number of resources on data handling, including the bar chart or bar graph. These pages are aimed at Year 4 children. The vertical bars represent the number of people going out on a boat. Each bar is completely separate from the others.

It is important that children get used to naming the horizontal and vertical axes and that these axes should always be named.

The hardest part of interpreting this bar chart involves the number of people shown on the vertical axis. The numbers go up in twenties, but of course there are intermediate values. The number of people on the 11.00 boat is more difficult to read and only a close approximation between 120 and 140 can be made. As it looks just less than half way to the next interval an estimate of just below 130 would be very accurate.

It is important not to just look at the graph but to also make some suggestions as to why the results are as they are. Why did the 12.00 boat have the least number of people on it, but the 1.00 boat have the most?

The second worksheet has similar problems, but the numbers on the vertical axis go up in tens rather than twenties.

Free Y4 maths worksheet: Bar charts (pg 1)

Free Y4 maths worksheet: Bar charts (pg 2)

Resource of the Week: Adding puzzle for Christmas

Once again from the stats I can see that everyone is very busy with shopping, eating, drinking etc so will join you all and have a week off. I will leave you with a little puzzle given to us by Mathsphere which we sent up a year ago in case you have nothing better to do!

Put the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in the bottom layer of baubles on the Christmas tree. The next layer is made by adding the pairs of numbers below and so on up to the top.

The numbers on the bottom row can be put in any order – what order will give the highest possible total at the top?

Answer is given for those who have eaten too many mince pies.

Happy Christmas

Christmas adding puzzle

Resource of the Week: Christmas tree puzzle

It doesn’t seem like a year ago that this little Christmas maths puzzle was posted, but Christmas is now just around the corner (although our local garden centre would have me believe that it started in early October!).

This puzzle looks quite easy but can cause a lot of problems. Probably suitable for older children, or even mums and dads! It asks to put the digits 1 to 9 in stars around a Christmas tree so that each side of four stars adds up to the same total.

There are a number of solutions, the one shown just an example.

Christmas tree stars

Resource of the Week: game: cross numbers

Maths games can be great for improving knowledge and this one we borrowed from the mathsphere.co.uk site, which is part of their extensive free resources.

Feeling confident about 2x, 5x and 10x tables? Why not have a go at this cross number? Just drag the numbers across to the correct squares. Easy peasy if you know your tables! If you get stuck the answers appear in red, but only for a short time.

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Resource of the Week: Venn diagrams and triangles

Most of the maths worksheets you find free on the internet tend to be number based. But not here on mathsblog! There are two parts to this free maths worksheet on classifying shapes, both involving Venn diagrams. The idea is to put either the names of shapes or drawings of shapes in the correct areas of the Venn diagram. Continue reading “Resource of the Week: Venn diagrams and triangles”

Resource of the Week: Counting in twos

If you have young children don’t forget to go to our fun maths games. Here we have Colin Caterpillar and his chums who love eating apples two at a time. Help him count up in twos. There are plenty more in our Free Maths Interactive Games section aimed at helping 5/6 year old children with counting, addition, subtraction etc.

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Resource of the Week: Written multiplication

We have an ever increasing number of maths worksheets explaining how standard written addition, subtraction, multiplication and division should be carried out. This is just one example of ‘short multiplication’. It leads on from the earlier worksheets on ‘Moving towards a standard method’. These can all be found in our Four Rules section, under written multiplication.

Before starting this type of sum a good knowledge of times tables is needed.

The stages are as follows:

Step 1: write the sum out correctly

The question may be put in a different layout eg 38 x 7 =

Make sure it is laid out with the units under each other as shown on the example. Continue reading “Resource of the Week: Written multiplication”

Resource of the Week: Reflective symmetry

Whilst most sites have loads of number worksheets you will find few which includes maths across all areas, including symmetry. Why? because they usually take longer to write!

Mirror line, line of symmetry, line symmetry, symmetrical, reflect, reflection, translation, axis of symmetry, reflective symmetry are all terms that children should know by the end of the primary stage.

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

Children should be able 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 is a great help with this and children are supplied with one in their SAT tests if such a question comes up – and they do seem to be very popular.

Year 6 maths worksheet: reflective symmetry