Maths help for parents of children aged 5 to 11
Remember the golden rules about multiplying:
When a number is multiplied by 10 it moves one place to the left.
When a number is multiplied by 100 it moves two places to the left. if this leaves a gap in the units or tens and units a zero must be inserted as a ‘place holder’.
Don’t get dragged into saying ‘add a nought’ because this doesn’t work with decimals eg 1.5 x 10 is not 1.50!!
This page can be found in our Year 4: Calculating section.
It might sound simple, but it is important for children to know that multiplication can be done in any order. This is also true of addition, but not subtraction or division and this knowledge comes into play a great deal later on with ‘BODMAS’ etc.
Put at its simplest 4 lots of 5 is the same as 5 lots of 4 or 4 x 5 is the same as 5 x 4. Children should have had a lot of experience with arrays which are a great way to show this.
This worksheets asks that the child completes the number sentence by putting in the missing number and then working out the times table.
This can be found as part of our Year 3 worksheets, under Counting and Number.
A great way to practice the 2x, 5x and 10x tables is with 2p, 5p and 10p coins. If you can gather together a set of ten of each this makes for a really good practical resource with endless questions: e.g. I have six 5p coins, how much do I have? Give me 20p all in 5p coins etc.
As a backup to this kind of work we have a worksheet from urbrainy.com which use coins as a basis for practising tables. At first children may count up in twos, fives or tens, but encourage them to just count the number of coins and multiply. (Although I admit that when I am in a shop with a pocket full of change I tend to count up!) This is just one of a great set of worksheets you can find at urbrainy.com.
More worksheets on multiplication can be found in our Four Rules, Multiplication section.
This is another multiplication worksheet which helps with the early stages of written multiplication.
Multiplying by 40 is the same as multiplying by 10 and multiplying by 4. To multiply by 10 just move each digit one place to the left and place a zero in the units column.
This method reduces this process by placing the zero in the units and then multiplying by 4, ensuring each digit of the answer is placed one space further to the left. There we go!
If a question involves both multiplication and addition then the convention is that the multiplication should be carried out first, then the addition.
So for 4 + 5 x 3
Firstly multiply 5 by 3 and then add on 4 to make 19.
Now some calculators do this (Scientific etc) but some work out each part as it is keyed in. This results in two calculators arriving at different answers: always interesting to show children!
Maths games can be great for improving knowledge and this one we borrowed from the mathsphere.co.uk site, which is part of their extensive free resources.
Feeling confident about 2x, 5x and 10x tables? Why not have a go at this cross number? Just drag the numbers across to the correct squares. Easy peasy if you know your tables! If you get stuck the answers appear in red, but only for a short time.
[flash http://mathsblog.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/crossno3.swf]
Setting up a little shop and buying and selling things has always been a great part of early maths, but usually this activity is limited to adding up and giving change. It can be used equally well to reinforce multiplication skills, as this worksheet shows. Continue reading “Year 2 Calculations: Multiplication and shopping”
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. Continue reading “Year 2 maths worksheet: Multiplication in any order”
One of the best ways of explaining multiplication is to think of it as repeated addition. So, a multiplication such as 4 x 3 is the same as adding 4 three times (4 + 4 + 4) or 3 lots of 4. Of course, 3 lots of 4 is the same as 4 lots of 3 which implies that multiplication can be done in any order, unlike division or subtraction. Continue reading “Maths worksheet: multiplication as repeated addition”
This is the second of our pages on the multiplication of money by a single digit. This is good practice at using tables which have been learned already and can be completed quite quickly by those with a good knowledge. Remember to do a quick estimate of the answer before starting and checking this with the answer to ensure that the written answer is sensible.
Lay out the second set of questions in the correct way as this will make it much easier to work out.