By Year 6 children should be familiar with the idea of having rules to decide in what order mathematical operations are carried out.In its simplest form this can be described as BODMAS First do the operations that are in brackets. Then do any divisions. Thirdly do any multiplicationsLastly, do any additions and subtractions(A similar acronym […]
An exciting development in teaching maths in the UK is bar modelling. Bar models are pictorial representations of number problems and act as a half-way house between using concrete representations (e.g. solid cubes) and working in the abstract. Bar models can be applied to subtraction and are an excellent way to help children in Year […]
Multiplying fractions is in many ways the easiest of the operations when dealing with fractions. Put simply, there are three steps: multiply the top numbers (the numerators) multiply the bottom numbers (the denominators) simplify the fraction if necessaryWhilst this is quite easy, the reason why it works is more complex. Children are used to the […]
Expanded addition is a method used to add numbers using the expanded form of the number. So, the question is, what is the expanded form of a number? The expanded form of a number is created when the number is written to show the place value of each digit. 76 in the expanded form is […]
Children in Year 2 will use ordinal numbers to describe the position of an object or which order things come in, such as first second and third. There are plenty of practical activities which can be done, from positioning a collection of toys in a row and asking children to describe their order, to having […]
Should you write practice or practise? If you are American the answer is very simple as they only use the ‘ice’ version – practice. If you are from the UK then it all gets a little bit trickier.Practise should be used when it is a verb, or ‘doing’ word. For example:Farah is going to practise […]
Bar modelling is a powerful visual method of helping children with their calculating. The term is used extensively in Singapore where children make excellent progress with Maths and is now being used more and more in this country. It is a pictorial approach to calculating, using visual models and is a half way step between […]
A really tricky set of worksheets on measurement problems suitable for Year 6 has just been published. Questions such as,“A packet of pasta contains 1.6 kg of pasta.Tom needs 20 kg of pasta for his penne party.How many packets of pasta will Tom need?”This involves some careful thought because 1.6 does not divide exactly into […]
We have just published our first set of planning sheets for helping children with report writing. The four topics are:PlaygroundThe Steam RailwaySwimming PoolLaser Light Display.These four topics have been adapted from past Year 6 SAT papers, therefore are ideal for older children. Whilst there is no set format for report writing, the report should be […]
A great selection of new money worksheets is also available for both Year 3 and Year 4, again using the theme of stickers. It is in Year 4 that children are expected to write pounds and pence using the correct decimal notation. For example, three pounds and five pence is written as £3.05. It must […]