Resource of the Week | Maths Blog

Resource of the Week: Rounding to the nearest million

One of the earliest posts that I made, back in 2007 was about rounding large numbers, up to millions. Many children are fascinated by large numbers and these two pages can help them both with reading and writing large numbers and rounding.

Thanks to mathsphere.co.uk for letting me use these resources, as they are taken from the ‘it’s All Figured Out’ CD.

Larger numbers can be rounded in just the same way as rounding hundreds or thousands; the key is to refer to the digit below the one you want to round.

Eg rounding to a million, look at the hundred thousand digit:

2 345 456 is rounded down to 2 000 000 (two million) to the nearest million because the hundred thousand digit is only 3.

2 987 654 is rounded up to 3 000 000 (three million) to the nearest million because the hundred thousand digit is 9.

There are plenty of good sources in geography, such as population figures, areas of countries etc

Rounding to the nearest million (pg 1)

Rounding to the nearest million (pg 2)

Year 1 addition game

Early years teachers are great at coming up with resources to help with addition, without them just being rows of sums. The teacher writers at urbrainy.com have come up with some excellent resources for year 1, including this great little board game for two people which involves both using a strategy and knowing addition facts. It is best played with one adult and one child, but beware you may lose! You will need 2 dice, 2 sets of 5 different coloured counters or cubes plus a calculator and the games sheet.

Decide who is to go first.Player one goes first and rolls the two dice. Add up the total and place a counter on a square showing that number. If the number has already been covered it becomes the next players go. Then player 2 has their turn. Some numbers, such as 7, come up on the grid several times (as there is a greater chance of throwing a 7 than any other total) so it is important to think about which 7 the counter is placed on.

The winner is the first person to put three counters in a row, across, down or diagonally. Sometimes it is more important to block the opponent than to try to create your own 3 in a row.

This game can be found in our Year 1 Calculating category

Dice: 3 in a row addition game

Resource of the Week: Congruent shapes and scalene triangles

Today we look at two mathematical terms which are less commonly known. Firstly, congruent is a word to conjure with! In fact it has a very simple meaning. If two shapes are congruent then they are identical in every way, including size.

Whilst this is very straightforward, unfortunately people who design maths tests papers make this as difficult as possible, as children are expected to be able to spot congruent shapes even when one of a pair has been turned. By far the easiest way to spot two congruent shapes is to cut one out, or trace it and see if it fits exactly over the other – if it does it is congruent. On this worksheet the aim is to find pairs of shapes which are congruent, and as always, the answers are provided! I do recommend the tracing option!

The second term is scalene. Most people are familiar with equilateral triangles and isosceles triangles but the term scalene triangle is the one that is most frequently forgotten. Quite simply, a scalene triangle is one which has no sides the same length and no equal angles.

These two worksheets can be found in the Year 5, Shape and Measures category.

Congruent shapes

Scalene triangles

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

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