Happy Christmas!

The children have worked very hard this term, and above all, deserve a big rest this holiday!

I have signed the group up to mangahigh (a games-based maths website where the children can earn medals and compete against one another). It is a really great way to reinforce and practise those basic number skills.
Each child has their login details stuck into their planner.




They are free to play games as they wish, but I have also assigned specific tasks to the group (which the children can find under 'my list'.) I can therefore track their progress and see what  they've been up to.

Have a lovely Christmas break all!
Best wishes
Miss Durkin

Times and divide as inverse operations

Today we explored multiplication and division as opposites.

Give children 3 numbers - they can use the numbers to make two multiplication sums
                                                                                             and two division sums

Inverse game

You can give your child 3 numbers (multiples of 2,3,4,5 only) and see if they can come up with the 4 sums.

This is what we have been doing in class:

Rounding to the nearest 100

 Start with a 3 digit number...

346

1) What two hundreds does it lie between?
2) Which hundred is it closest to? Would be round up or down?

To answer the second question, I have encouraged the children to look at the tens column. If it is less than 50 round down, or 50 or above, round up.

It is also good to draw it out and make a blank number line, so it is very visual for them.
If they do this, they should find the number that lies half way between them and mark it on the number line. They may also want to mark on the tens. Then they can clearly see whether it is above or below and so know which way to round.

Measuring length

Rulers and tape measures have been out this week!

The children have been estimating, measuring and recording length to the nearest half cm.

We have briefly looked at mm, but the children don't need to worry about being too accurate yet - reading to the nearest half cm is fine for now.
Of course, if appropriate, you could have a go!

When recording halves, the children should use .5, they should know this is because it is 5 little mm along.


Length games

Next week...

Number bonds to 100!

Starting by recapping our number bonds to 10

Adding and subtracting 10p!

We've been both cutting and increasing prices today - involving adding and subtracting multiples of 10.

i.e. £2.10 + 10p = 

      £3.45 - 10p =

      £2.25 + 30p =

      £4.48 - 30p =

To make this easier, I have encouraged the children to write HTU (hundreds, tens, units) above the appropriate digit first. This way they can identify what the tens number is, as this is the only number that will change.

It is a good idea to always begin with adding and subtracting just 10p, and then progress to other multiples of 10.

You can have a go at pricing a few items at home and setting up a shop. Slash prices for the day or put them up as a way to raise some extra money for charity!

We have also talked about the importance of using zero as a place holder, when there are no tens.

i.e. writing £5.08 instead of £5.8

Money

Today we started to look at money, and will be focusing on this next week.


The children will be learning to:

*Identify the names of all the coins (1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1, £2) and use them to make varying amounts. 

*Read and record amounts of money using £ and p, including use of zero i.e. £3·05

*Use place value to solve problems and add and subtract amounts of money


Here are some great games, if you would like to have a go with your child:

Sort, count and order
Giving change - subtracting
Igloo shopping
Shopping bag
Pay using 1 coin

Fractions

We have been exploring fractions this week - helping the children to understand fractions as parts of wholes.

The fraction wall helps with this

The children should realise that each part must be equal, and the bigger the 'number at the bottom', the smaller the part is.

You can ask questions like... 'which is bigger, 1/2 or 2/6?' etc. They can use the wall to help.

These are great games the children really like:

Fraction beach

Fraction game

We have also been finding fractions of given amounts too. The children will need counters or cubes or coins, something they can split up.

Can you find:

1/2 of  16   (they should know this by heart)

1/3 of 15

1/4 of 20   etc.

Try 2/3 3/4 etc. when confident 

Try this...  Would you rather?

Place value cards

These cards are great visual and kinaesthetic tools to help the children understand the value of two and three digit numbers, and develop their understanding of number in general.

Building and pulling apart numbers to help add, subtract, double, half etc., or just let them experiment with them. 

Games such as:

Who can build...

the largest number? smallest number?

a number in between 600 and 700?

a number that rounds to 70?

a number that is closest to 30?

a number less than 124? etc.

Cards

Use a different colour for each card 

Doubling and halving

The children should be able to recall the doubling and halving facts up to 20 pretty quickly.
If they are still a bit wobbly, then please do practise these little and often...whenever you get a spare minute.


i.e. double 6 is 12
double 7 is 14
double 9 is 18

half of 12 is
half of 16 is

These games will help:
stage 1
stage 2


The children enjoyed testing themselves using this machine:
Doubling and halving machine

When moving onto to doubling and halving 2 digit numbers, we encourage the children to make diamonds. This encourages them to split the number into tens and units, working on one side at a time.


Like this,

   Doubling diamond

Doubling using place value cards

                                     Halving diamond

Here is a good game to practise both. You can change the level of difficulty.

Dartboard doubles and halves

Set the level

When halving, use numbers where both the tens and digits are even. i.e 24, 48, 62 etc. Then move onto odd.

Finding the difference

We have been using blank number lines to practise subtracting. 

It is important to use the term 'finding the difference' also, to help the children to become familiar with it.

Give the chdn a subtraction sum i.e. 63 - 54 =            (one that doesn't involve crossing a ten to begin                                                                                       with)

Ask them to draw a blank number line. They should position the smallest number on the left (as this is the number we are taking away), and the largest on the right.

They can then draw a hop/jump to the next 10, and record this on the line. Then a remaining hop/jump to the end number. Adding these hops/jumps together, will find the difference.

You can then progress to crossing tens, when confident:
i.e.

41 - 22 =

Rounding to the nearest ten

Rounding to the nearest ten.

1. identify how many tens the number has
    It is really handy to get the children to label the hundreds tens and units, by writing above:













2. You can almost ignore the hundreds here, so get the children to cover it with their hand if it helps.


3. If the units are below 5 we round down to the ten below, and if 5 or below we round up:

Here is a good game to practise rounding to the nearest ten:

Level 1

Level 2

Time and 3D shape

3D - naming and describing some common 3D shapes, using the correct mathematical vocabulary i.e. vertices, edges, faces etc.

Good questions to ask...
How do you know this is a... cylinder? - it has 3 faces, (1 is curved and 2 are flat)
                                                              it has 2 edges
                                                              it has 0 vertices

Time - telling the time to the nearest 5 minutes both on analogue and digital clocks (12 hour only).

These are good games to practice:

15 minute intervals to begin

5 minute intervals

Teaching tool