Maths help for parents of children aged 5 to 11
Children always seem very reluctant to check the answers to calculations that they have made. This sometimes results in bizarre answers, often when using a calculator.
Here is a simple subtraction worksheet but it also asks for each subtraction to be checked by carrying an addition.
For example: 40 – 17 = 23 can be checked by adding 17 and 23 which equals 40.
The most comon error that children make with this is to say that 40 -17 = 33.
Perhaps the most efficent is to add 40 to 67 to make 107 and then add on the extra 6 to make 113.
It’s been a while since I posted anything for year 4 so here is another addition worksheet. Not easy, and a number of skills need to have been learned to do these in an efficient manner.
For example: looking at ‘add 46 to 67’.
There a a number of ways to do this. Perhaps the most efficient is to add 40 to 67 to make 107 and then add on the extra 6 to make 113.
The second part of the sheet is a reminder of some of the ways that addition questions can be phrased.
We usually think of the terms convex and concave in relation to mirrors and lens. The word convex means curving out or bulging out but it can also be applied to polygons. A convex polygon is one where all the internal angles are less than 180 degrees – the type that we are most familiar with. A concave polygon will have an interior angle greater than 180 degrees – it looks as if it has been pushed in on one side.
Some quick revision of addition, working all answers out ‘in your head’.
By now children should have a wide range of techniques for adding mentally. One example on this maths worksheet is to add 29 by adding 30 and subtracting one. Also here is some revision of the language of addition: increase, total, how many altogether.
On this free maths worksheet is some pretty hard work concerned with prisms.
(A prism is a solid figure whose bases or ends have the same size and shape and are parallel to one another, and each of whose sides is a parallelogram.)
It is a good idea to try and collect a variety of prisms so that there properties can be explored in detail.
Look out for interesting shaped boxes eg toblerone packet is a triangular prism.
There are some interesting facts about prisms such as the number of faces is always two more than the number of edges on the end. Other facts are included on the answer page.
This maths worksheet gives some practice at adding on to make the next whole thousand.
This maths worksheet gives some practice at adding on to make the next whole thousand. The questions are in the form of:
“What must be added to 3400 to make 4000?”
Continue reading “Free Y4 maths worksheet: What must be added?”
This free maths worksheet looks at the relationship between addition and subtraction, in particular, that subtraction is the inverse or opposite of addition. This gives us an excellent way to check answers.
Look at 450 – 51.
We can do the subtraction sum and then check by doing the same subtraction sum again. But there is a danger with this that we might make the same mistake twice.
A better way is to do the subtraction and get the answer (399) and then check by adding the answer 399 to 51 which gives 450. Yes that is the same as the question.
Free Y 4 maths worksheet: Understand subtraction and its relationship to addition (pg 3)
Children need to spend time handling 3-D shapes and should be familiar with the terms ‘edge’, ‘face’ and ‘vertex’ (plural: ‘vertices’) when applied to 3-D shapes.
A range of boxes used for packaging such as chocolate boxes, tissue boxes etc, may be opened to see the nets used to construct them. (A net is the 2-D shape that must be cut out and folded to make a 3-D shape.
Children should make 3-D shapes from suitable materials such as straws and pipe cleaners (used to join the ends) or kits designed for the purpose.
In this way, they will be able to see how many of each 2-D shape are needed as faces for a 3-D shape (Eg. six squares are needed to make a cube; a square and four isosceles triangles are needed to make a square based pyramid.)
Many shapes can be made from cubes. Cubes that join together are helpful here, but non-joining cubes are very useful too.
Other properties of shapes will be discovered, such as ‘the number of faces of a prism is equal to two more than the number of edges on one of the end faces’.
Free Y4 maths worksheet: Visualise 3-D objects and make nets
By year 4 expectations are rising as children’s understanding and knowledge increases. The Primary Framework for Mathematics suggests that children should be able to read, write and understand the following words:
Take away
subtract
how many are left?
how much less?
difference between,
how much more?
how many more to make?
decrease,
inverse
and the minus sign (–)
They should know that:
Subtraction is the same as taking away, finding the difference between and complementary addition.
Subtraction is non-commutative.
When a larger number is subtracted from a smaller number, the answer is negative.
Subtracting a number from another makes it smaller.
Subtracting zero makes no difference to a number.
Subtraction is the inverse of addition.
They should have good mental strategies for solving subtraction problems with simple numbers.
These two free maths worksheets can be used as a check to see whether some of these fundamentals have been understood.
Free Y4 maths worksheets: Understand subtraction and its relationship to addition (pg 1)
Free Y4 maths worksheets: Understand subtraction and its relationship to addition (pg 2)
Which operation is involved in word problems
Whether calculations should be done mentally or with pen and paper.
How to explain and record the operations used in solving the problem.
These two maths worksheets are concerned with getting children to make decisions about:
Which operation is involved in word problems
Whether calculations should be done mentally or with pen and paper.
How to explain and record the operations used in solving the problem.
They focus on examples and draw children’s attention to these issues, but it is important to realise that these decisions should be taken by children in most things they do in mathematics, so encourage them to discuss their work wherever possible. Often there is no one right way to tackle a problem, but usually there is a most efficient way which is what they should be looking for.
Free Y4 maths worksheets: Choose the operation and method (pg 5)
Free Y4 maths worksheets: Choose the operation and method (pg 6)