Resource of the Week | Maths Blog

Year 3 maths worksheets: Know Number facts

Year 3 is a time when children make huge strides forward in their mathematical thinking, as long as they have got a secure background knowledge. With over 20 pages to choose from, our worksheets in the Know Number Facts reflect this development. We have worksheets on knowing addition and subtraction facts with numbers up to 20, doubling numbers and subtracting from a teen number.

We also have a number of pages dedicated to calculator games. The aim of these is to use the calculator as a means of showing knowledge of tables and multiples of 3, 4, 5 and 10, not just as a means of working an answer out.

Division, of course, is much easier if tables are known and we have a growing number of pages of division questions.

Go to our Year 3 maths worksheets on knowing number facts

Year 6 maths worksheets: Understanding Number

The Mathsblog section on year 6 maths worksheets, Understanding Number, has a growing number of worksheets covering a wide range of topics. The work expected in Year 6 is very challenging as numbers are used in ever increasing and decreasing sizes. Rounding numbers right up to millions is included, together with rounding decimals and estimating and approximating numbers.

There is also some excellent pages on fractions, as well as relating fractions, percentages and decimals. Prime factors are also introduced. Keep an eye out on this section as it is updated with new worksheets being added on a regular basis.

For a lot of Year 6 children this work will prove too tricky and I would advise looking at some of the earlier year groups for suitable material, in particular year 4 and 5.

Go to our Year 6 Understanding Number worksheets

Year 2 maths worksheet: multiplication in any order

Children in Year 2 are expected to know and understand an awful lot about how numbers work. Here we have a maths worksheet, one of a set from urbrainy.com, which looks at a vital part of understanding the process of multiplication: that it can be done in any order. This is also true of addition, but not of subtraction or division.
This page shows that ‘2 lots of 4’ is the same as ‘4 lots of 2’, therefore 4 x 2 is the same as 2 x 4. It does not matter which way the answer is worked out, it will be 8.
This little piece of knowledge helps children with mental arithmetic and with learning tables. Each table which is learned gives further knowledge of other tables. Eg If you know 5 x 4 = 20 then you can quickly reverse the number sentence to 4 x 5 = 20.

Multiplication in any order (pg 1)

Resource of the Week: Multiplication of money

Here we have a straightforward worksheet dealing with the multiplication of money by a single digit. It would normally be expected to answer these using written methods. The main concern here is that the process is carried out much as multiplying a 3 or 4-digit number, but remembering the decimal point.

The second set of questions, from 9. to 15 should be set out in the correct way and not attempted as shown.

It is often a good idea for children to check the answers to these types of page by using a calculator. (If they just use the calculator to find the answer this is quite obvious as there is no working shown!)

This page any many others can be found in our Four Rules section.

Multiplication of money (pg 1)

Resource of the Week: Year 2 Investigation

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 ?

Make 12

Resource of the Week: Probability for Year 5

Probably one of the least understood of maths concepts, especially with young children.

Children should be able to say whether events are impossible , unlikely , likely or certain.

They should also be able to say which events have an even chance of happening (such as tossing a coin and getting a head), but they should be careful not to say that if there are two possibilities, they are equally likely. For example, there are two possibilities – I might buy a new BMW today or I might not. Unfortunately, these two events are not equally likely. Another example of this is I choose a number between 1 and 5. Is the number I choose a prime number? As there are three prime numbers between 1 and 5 (2, 3 and 5) and two numbers that are not, there is not an even chance that I will choose a prime number.

Sometimes further investigations have to be carried out before a probability question can be answered. Take the possibility of a factor of 16 being even. The only way of doing this is to first find all the factors of 16, group them into even or odd and then work out the probability.

Free Y5 maths worksheet: Probability (pg 3)

Resource of the Week: Pictogram of birds (year 4)

Here we have another in our series of data handling worksheets for year 4. Each bird on the pictogram represents 5 birds. This page is a starter to show children how to complete and interpret a pictogram so that they can go on to create their own. In this case more information about the most common birds in the garden can easily be found on the internet and a hypothesis can be made as to whether a local survey would give similar results.

Pictogram: birds in the garden

Resource of the Week: Wordsnake on Handling Data

In our Puzzles section we have a number of great activities related to maths. Some of these are quite tricky, including the Wordsnakes. This particular one is all about the language of Handling Data – great for a wet playtime activitiy!

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: Written methods of subtraction

This week we are highlighting in our series of worksheets covering the four rules, especially written methods of subtraction. Children should be competent with the standard written method of subtraction before moving onto subtracting decimals. Money is an excellent way to show how decimals work and it is important to ensure that there are two numbers after the decimal point. Another key point, of course, is to make sure the columns are correctly in line and that a decimal point is included in the answer. Make sure that questions 9 to 15 are written out in the correct format: vertically rather than horizontally.

Standard money subtraction (p1)

Resource of the Week: Times tables and square numbers

As well as all our worksheets in each of the year groups from 1 to 6 don’t forget to look at our Four Rules section for the more ‘old fashioned’ type of pages. Here we have rather a mixed bag of questions. The first half asks questions derived from the times tables, such as ‘How many fours in 32?’ This is an important question to ask before moving on to the long method of division.

The second set of questions looks at square numbers, which, of course, give a diagonal pattern on a tables square. Children need to be familiar with the square sign to tackle this. It is extremely useful to know, off by heart, all the square numbers, up to at least 10 x 10, as it will be a great help later in High School.

This page can be found in our Four Rules section, under Multiplication (mental methods).

Times table questions (pg 1)