Resource of the Week | Maths Blog

Resource of the Week: Solve puzzles and investigate

Investigations are a great way to reinforce mathematical concepts and learn about patterns in maths. This maths worksheet is posted in our Year 2 section, under Using and Applying Maths and has proved to be one of our most used resources.

We have the digits from one to nine again, this time the task is to use three digits to make 12. This is much harder than just using two digits and it would be a good idea to have some cards printed out with the digits on to help with this. They are available in the reception maths worksheets section.

Again plenty of opportunity for talking about the numbers and what counts as a different way. Is 1 + 2 + 9 the same as 2 + 1 + 9 ?

Free Y2 maths worksheet: Solve puzzles and investigate (2)

Resource of the Week: Written addition

We have a good selection of maths worksheets covering the standard written method of addition. We begin this with using just 2-digit numbers, although it should be pointed out that usually 2-digit addition should be tackled ‘in your head’.

The standard method is to add the units first, put the units in the answer, and ‘carry’ the ten into the tens column. Then add the tens. detailed examples and plenty of preactice can be found in our Four Rules section under written addition.

Standard addition of 2-digit numbers (2)

Resource of the Week: Year 5 Scalene triangles

A lot of work is done on triangles in Primary Schools and by year 5 and 6 most children are familiar with the properties of right angled triangles, equilateral triangles and isosceles trinagles. However, fewer children know about the scalene triangle. A scalene triangle is one which has no sides the same length and no equal angles. Right angled triangles could also be scalene if all the sides are different lengths.

Thanks to MathSphere Ltd for this worksheet: and there are many more similar pages, both on their site and part of the ‘It’s All Figured Out’ CD.

Go to our year 5 shape resources

Resource of the Week: Maths wordsnake

In our Puzzles section we have a number of great activities related to maths. Some of these are quite tricky, including the Wordsnakes.

A Wordsnake is a little like a maze of letters. Start at the arrow to find the first word, moving across or down the grid of letters (but not diagonally) like a snake. The word will not be in a straight line but each letter in the grid can only be used once. The second word follows on immediately from the first, the third from the second and so on until each letter has been used and the maze is exited at the second arrow.

On this Wordsnake the first word has been done for you and the number of dashes shows how many letters there are in each word. As it is about data handling all the words are to do with this. Still not clear? Why not have a go as it is testing even for adults!

Go to our Wordsnake

More maths games can be found in our Puzzles section

Resource of the Week: Shape for Year 5

Don’t forget to look at our Shape and Measures resources as we have some excellent pages. For year 5 we have pages on congruent shapes, scalene triangles, classifying shapes using Venn diagrams as well as some worksheets on the properties of 3D shapes.

Congruent shapes might be thought of as easy, but many children (and adults) have difficulty in identifying them. Remember, congruent shapes are shapes that have exactly the same length of sides and the same angles: if cut out they would fit perfectly on top of each other. Unfortunately, if you don’t cut them out they can be tricky to identify.

Take a look at our Year 5 Shape and Space Resources.

Resource of the week: counting and colouring fish to total 10.

Our counting game, colouring ten fish, is great practice for young children both with counting and seeing how many ways three small numbers can total 10.

The game involves clicking on each of ten fish to make them change colour. One click changes the fish to red, two clicks turns the fish blue and a third click will make it gold.

Any fish can be coloured as long as the totals work out correctly. Just click on the ‘Go’ button to see if you have completed the colouring correctly… and there’s even a colouring page to print out at the end!

Go to our great colouring fish game.

Resource of the Week: short multiplication worksheets

‘Short’ multiplication, as it is known, means to use pencil and paper methods to multiply a 2-digit (or more) number by a one digit number in a vertical way.

In English schools children have plenty of experience building up to this method, in the hope that they understand what is going on. Unfortunately they are sometimes taught so many methods that they get totally confused.

These pages show simply, step by step how to carry out the method on paper, but a good knowledge of ‘times tables’ is needed.

Go to our resources on short multiplication.

Resource of the Week: Year 6 maths booster pages.

Resource of the Week: Year 6 booster pages.

It’s the start of a new term for most children, and in year 6 many will already be practising various SAT test papers. We have a good range of pages to help with this.

An old favourite with the SATs question writers is reflective symmetry. During the test children are given tracing paper or a small mirror. If using the mirror they need to line it up along the dotted line and draw the reflection. If the shape is drawn on squared paper it can be easier to draw it by hand taking each square in turn.

Being able to read information from a calendar may seem pretty straightforward to us, but many children do not come across these in their everyday life and hence have problems working out how to extract the information.

The questions here are aimed at boosting a level 3 towards a level 4. For those children aiming at a Level 5 care must be taken to read the tables and charts accurately as they are a good way to pick up easy marks.

Why not take a look at our booster pages now?

Resource of the Week: Learning Times Tables

Making the effort to learn times tables or multiplication tables is one of those things which keep coming back as being crucial for success with maths. Certainly having a rapid knowledge of tables is an enormous help and they should be learnt as sentences eg ‘4 times 6 is 24’, ‘5 times 6 is 30’ etc and not just ‘6, 12, 18, 24, 30’ etc.

I still remember rote learning times tables as a child and there is really no other way of doing it.

There are a number of pages on the site which test knowledge of tables to be found in our four rules section, under multiplication.

Learning tables worksheets

Resource of the Week: Metric worksheets for Year 4

We have been using metric measurement for a long time now yet many children still seem confused when measuring, whether it is distance, weight or capacity.

There are a few simple facts that children need to know, including:

1 kilometre equals 1000 metres

1 kilogram = 1000 grams

1 litre equals 1000 millilitres

Not too tricky and much easier than the old imperial unts where 1760 yards equals one mile!!

There are a number of excellent metric worksheets for Year 4, thanks to Mathsgogogo and MathSphere for allowing me to ‘borrow’ them.

Year 4 metric worksheets