Maths Resources | Maths Blog

Mental division practice

being able to divide mentally is essential and is made much easier by knowing times tables.

Here is a follow up page to one published earlier, giving more practice with simple division. If children have a good knowledge of the 2x, 4x, 5x and 10x tables they should find these quite straightforward. The only potentially tricky ones are where the missing number is in the middle of the number sentence

eg 24 divided by ? = 6

This requires a good understanding of what the number sentence means, but all that is required to answer is a knowledge of ‘what multiplied by 6 makes 24’.

This worksheet can be found in our Year 3 Knowing Number Facts section.

Y3 division practice 2

Add decimals mentally

Here is another page which looks at adding decimals mentally and once again shows the different approach which is usually taken compared to the standard written method.

To illustrate what I mean let’s look at the first question: 5.7 + 2.5. If this was done by the written method the two numbers would be placed in a vertical form:

5.7

2.5

and added starting with the tenths before going on to the units.

When using mental methods it would be quite usual to start with the units, adding the 5 and 2 to make 7, holding this in our memory, then adding the 7 and 5 tenths, making 1.2 before finally adding the 1.2and 7 to make 8.2.

The second set of questions on the page are probably best done by adding on. For example:

0.8 + ?? = 3

I would do this by adding 0.2 to 0.8 to make 1 and then counting on 2 more to make 3. There are , of course, other ways but the important thing is that whatever method is used it needs to be quick and accurate.

Add two decimals (3)

More of this type of question can be found in our Four Rules category.

Pairs of numbers that make 20

Here we have a straightforward maths worksheet on knowing pairs of numbers that add up to twenty. This is suitable for year 1/2 children or those who are already very confident with knowing pairs of numbers that make ten.

If these facts are not known there are several ways of working the answers out, including:

1. Counting on from the smaller number.

2. Counting on from the smaller number up to 10 and then adding another 10. (If smaller number is below 10.)

3. Counting back from 20, which is trickier.

A good follow up to this page is to ask how many different ways you can make 20 by adding just two numbers.

Know pairs that make 20 (pg 2)

Roman numeral clock faces

One of the new targets for maths in year 3 will be to, ‘tell and write the time from an analogue clock, including using Roman numerals from I to XII’. As I haven’t published any time sheets using Roman numerals I thought that now was the perfect opportunity; so here it is!
It is best that children are introduced to the Roman system of numbers before doing this worksheet, although it is interesting to understand that many adults do not look at the numbers around the clock, just the angle of the two hands and indeed many fashion watches fail to have numbers on at all, but we still manage to be able to tell the time.

This page sticks to just whole hours and half hours, although perhaps it should be pointed out that Julius Caesar and his chums would never had read the time in this way!!

Roman numerals: clock faces

Resource of the week: year 1 investigate addition

shape Welcome to a new term and plenty of new maths material coming up over the next few months.

From our current resources here is a nice little investigation for young children which will show how well they can organise their thinking and work in a logical way.

The question is simple: how many different ways can you score 8 when throwing two dice?

It’s always a good idea to sit down with your children when doing this type of activity. In this way you can ask questions which will help them clarify their thoughts. The sheet is designed to be used as a record of results. At first they might just keep rolling the dice and adding up the totals until a total of 8 is achieved. Other children might dive straight in with some answers eg 4 + 4 makes 8.

A good question to ask at the end is “How do you know that you have got all the possibilities?

Free Y1 maths worksheet: Investigate dice

Year 1 maths worksheet: numbers in order

I have just published a new worksheet on writing small numbers in order, for year 1 although suitable for younger children if ready. There is more than one possible answer on most of these which makes it a little trickier.
Many children learn to recite the numbers 1 to 10 without having any concept of what each number means so it is very important to show these numbers using practical ‘hands on’ equipment such as cubes, counters etc. and to understand one-to-one correspondence. To begin with some children will need to count up in ones from 1 to find each answer

There are also many activities which can help, such as tracing numbers in sand, tracing over numbers or using number cards to rearrange a small set of numbers in order.

Order numbers

Place value to millions

Many children find reading large numbers very difficult, as indeed do many adults. This is a very simple page which looks at reading larger numbers up to millions. If nothing else it should help children realise that they need to start with hundreds tens and units and the the next three columns are then repeated but in thousands. A common error is to start trying to read a very large number from the largest digit when this can often just be a guess.

Working in blocks of three:

123 456 789

789 hundreds tens units

456 hundreds tens units of thousands

123 hundreds tens units of millions

so the number is 123 million 456 thousand and 789.

Easy!

Place value: millions

Revising times tables in Year 4

What have we got today? It’s the second in our multiplying by 3, 4, 6, 8 and 10 worksheets, suitable for year 4 children or those who are beginning to know their tables.

The best way to learn tables is to recite them out loud eg ‘4 times 3 is 12, then shorten it to, ‘4 3s are 12’, with the ultimate aim of being able to say the product for any two single digits without having to work it out.

During the process of learning times tables plenty of practice is needed and how well they have been learned can be seen by how quickly the page is correctly answered.

Multiplication 3x 4x 6x 8x 10_(pg 2)

Year 3 money problems: packed lunch

By year 3 children will be well acquainted with the pound and pence signs and should know that there are 100 pence in a pound. They should also be familiar with the way that we show money in pounds e.g. £2.34 where the decimal point separates whole pounds from pence and that the digits in first column after the pound sign represent 10ps and the second digit represents single pence.

This worksheet looks at some simple addition of money using both pounds and pence and involves working out answers using more than one operation or process; this always makes it harder.

Buying a packed lunch

Year 2: Time. What can you do in one minute?

Getting a clear concept of amount of time is important for young children. This page challenges children to complete a number of tasks in one minute, such as how tall a tower can be built using blocks/lego etc.

An important part of this is to make sure that they make an estimate/guess before starting which shows how realistic they are about time. One minute is a short time, but it is surprising how much can be achived in just 60 seconds!

This resource can be found in our Year 2 measurement section.

One minute