We continue publishing our weekly mental arithmetic questions for years 4, 5 and 6 with sets 59 and 60. The Year 4 questions are all on subtraction. The first few are relatively easy, subtracting, 11, 21 or 41 from 2-digit numbers where no adjustment is needed. The later questions are harder, including subtracting 19 and 29 from 2-digit numbers. Children should be developing their own fast, accurate strategies for doing this type of question, including subtracting 29 by subtracting 30 and adjusting by adding one to the answer. This is not always the best way e.g. where the number to be subtracted from has a nine in the units e.g. 39 - 29. In Year 5 there are some tricky addition and doubling questions involving decimals. It is always interesting to think how we tackle questions 'in our heads' and then discussing this with children. For instance, 'Double 3.5'. I must admit that I doubled 35, (70) which I pretty much know off by heart and then divided by 10,converting it back to the original question (7). Finally the Year 6 questions concentrate on multiplication and division of decimal fractions. One question which might cause problems is 'Double 5.5' which can be tackled in the same way as mentioned above. Go to Year 4 mental arithmetic Go to Year 5 mental arithmetic Go to Year 6 mental arithmetic