Category: Maths sites reviews

Numicon uses a very different approach from most maths programmes in that they use shapes to represent numbers. In this way children, through physically handling a shape, gain a mental image of a number and then cease to rely on the ‘concrete’ shape. The shapes are colourful, pleasing to handle and very robust – ideal for the Reception classroom. They also have a Home Kit to help with numbers from one to ten which includes a number book and CD of songs.

Originally designed for children in Early Years it is now used extensively by many teachers in Key Stage 2 as it can be used for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division as well as other arithmetic operations.

To get the best use of the resources there are a number of videos available on the site which are well worth looking at, as this approach breaks the restrictive trends of the Numeracy Strategy; always a good thing!

They also have a number of free resources for primary children (aged 5 – 11) to put on the wall at home at:

http://www.numicon.com/display_resources.html

If you are looking for a different approach to maths or have a child who is really struggling with understanding number then I would certainly recommend this site.

Numicon

If you are looking for bright, colourful worksheets and resources for very young children then urbrainy.com is one site you must visit. They have launched the first of their interactive maths games this week. The site is developing into an excellent resource with plenty of free stuff for young children beginning their understanding of maths. I like the layout, which is bright and modern looking and it seems to be developing by the week.
Subscription for a year is well worthwhile at just £10.00 and I believe that schools can subscribe for a site licence for just £12.00 a year.

Review of mychild from mathsblog.co.uk

Mychild is a website for parents. It offers a huge amount of help including parenting advice, worksheets and resources. Some of these are free but they also offer a subscription service. Whilst this isn’t cheap it does come with some excellent resources across the curriculum and includes magazines and CDs. This costs £86 for one year, but you can get an excellent starter pack of books and CDs for £9.00 (currently valued at over £190) to review for 10 days. If you don’t want it, then by returning within 10 days will ensure that your money is returned. You can’t ask for more than that.

Certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, but many parents do find this a valuable site.

Topmarks.co.uk

Topmarks Education has had a presence on the web for over 9 years, being launched in September 1998 by Chris and Sue Spolton.
It has three main aims:
1. To provide easy access to the best educational websites
2. To help teachers use the web in the classroom
3. To support parents who want to help their children.
Going right through from the earliest years to Higher Education it is a huge bank of links to other sites which provide free resources. Not just maths but just about every subject you could think of.
It is well organised into subject areas on the Home Page. Choose your subject (Maths obviously!) and there is a dropdown menu for choosing the appropriate age range. With over 70 sites to look at just for maths it is certainly a site you would want to bookmark and come back to.

Interest

Ease of use

Maths content

Timez Attack

Are you spending tedious hours trying to get your children to learn their tables? Would you like to get your children pleading to learn their tables? Well if the Timez Attack blurb is true to its word your kids will love this. Coming from the Big Brainz site, they obviously like their zzzzs!

The Timez Attack base version is a free download of about 43 MB consisting of a high-tech and entertaining video game aimed at improving tables. Graphics are excellent, on a par with many video games. Your children will probably find their way around far better than you as they explore the dungeon and overcome monsters, at first to master their two times table. Continue reading “Timez Attack: web review”

Mathszone.

A commendable idea: to collect a variety of free games and activities from different sites which can be used for teaching maths in school or at home. Organised into 9 categories:
Use and apply maths
Count and understand
Number facts, add and subtract
Number facts, multiply and divide
Calculating, add and subtract
Calculating, multiply and divide
Shape
Measuring
Handling data. Continue reading “Mathszone: web review”

atschool

atschool has been around for some years now. It covers KS1 and KS2 in a range of areas or ‘classrooms’ as they are known. It does have a lot of material on the site, not just maths, and there is a small amount of material which you can freely access. Most, however, is only available if you subscribe. Continue reading “atschool: web review”

BBC BackPage

Interesting idea – a place for parents, grandparents and carers to share video clips about how to help children with their maths homework. This is a prototype site which will be up and running for just 4 months to begin with. It is organised into year groups (just like this blog!) but not all year groups are covered yet. Continue reading “BBC-BackPage: web review”

Hmm. Let’s get slightly controversial. Browsing for maths dictionaries I found ‘A Maths Dictionary for Kids’ by Jenny Eather on CD on the Cambridge-Hitachi site. Now it was difficult to find a price on this site so I went to R-E-M and also found it there, for sale for £115.09 inc VAT.

Now I know that this is an excellent dictionary as I have used it before – great graphics and clear explanations – but over £100 seems rather expensive. And it seems even more expensive when I can access it free of charge at A Maths Dictionary for Kids by Jenny Eather.

Continue reading “A maths dictionary for kids: web review”