Summer Term Maths Mastery Resources Our first half of the Summer Term resources for Maths Mastery are now available. These provide a superb back-up resource for anyone following the Maths Mastery approach. More details below. Year 1: Multiply and Divide Children will be introduced to multiplication during this term but with plenty of help such as using concrete materials and arrays. Multiplication will not be used in a formal way but children will be expected to make equal groups using concrete items such as pencils, cubes, marbles etc. and we have some great pictorial pages on recognising equal groups. Once children can recognise equal groups they can use this knowledge to find totals of groups e.g. three equal groups of 5 apples. Arrays are a great way to show equal groups and children can make their own as well as interpreting them. An important part of this will be to begin to count in multiples of ten and we have lots of help with this. Being able to double is one of the most powerful mental skills that children can develop and we introduce simple doubling of small numbers this term. Sharing into equal groups is also introduced, but at a very simple level using 1:1 correspondence. It is important that children spend as much time as possible on these very early stages of multiplication and division if they are to make good progress in Year 2 and beyond. Year 1 Fractions No need to panic as fractions in Year 1 is limited to understanding halves and quarters. At first children will explore shapes, dividing them into two equal parts and then moving on to small quantities or sets of objects. Plenty of practical work needed here. Quarters are also introduced, again mainly in a practical way, sharing sets of objects into 4 equal parts, colouring a quarter of shapes etc. We have included some great sets of worksheets giving children plenty of practice working with halves and quarters as well as later moving on to counting in halves. Year 1 Position and Direction Every child should get the chance to play Snakes and Ladders. It is a superb game to help children understand terms such as ‘left’, ‘right’, ‘up’ and ‘down’ as well as counting on and back. Other terms such as ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ are also used to describe position. With just one week children can make great progress, leading to describing position and movement including following simple routes. Year 2: Position and Direction Children in Year 2 will continue the work begun in Year 1, describing more complex movement using language such as ‘forwards’, ‘backwards’, ‘left’, ‘right’ etc. Two new terms are introduced; ‘clockwise’ and ‘anticlockwise’ as well as phrases such as ‘three quarter turn’. Making patterns from shapes that involve direction and turn is also an important part of work in Year 2. Year 2: Problem Solving We have a number of different kinds of problem solving activities for the Maths Mastery in Year 2. Firstly, there are the straightforward word questions, which at this age are usually just one step. It is always worth watching how children approach these questions. For example: ‘A bag of potatoes weighs 2 kg. How much would 6 bags of potatoes weigh?’ How a child answers will tell you a lot about their mathematical ability and confidence. Some children will use their knowledge of times tables (2 x 6 = 12). Some will write down 2 six times and add them up. Others will count in twos on their fingers. 2-step questions are also introduced and these are much harder, requiring two different calculations to reach the answer. Other activities are more open ended, but just as worthwhile. These often involve ‘How many ways’ types of question. They require an orderly logical approach which young children only develop over time. This is also true for the ‘magic square’ type questions where children will not reach the correct answer immediately but will need some ‘trial and improvement’ techniques. Year 2: Time Whilst Time appears in the National Curriculum as part of Measurement we have always thought that it is such an important topic that it should have a category of its own. In Year 2 children are expected to read time to the half hour, to the quarter hour and eventually to 5 minutes. We have a great selection of worksheets to help with this as well as more on finding the duration of times using clock faces. Year 3: Fractions There is a three week slot for Fractions in the Summer Term for Year 3, so there is a good deal to cover. Children coming into Year 3 should have a sound understanding of simple fractions, especially halves, quarters and thirds. They should have had plenty of practical experience dividing shapes and sets of objects into quarters and thirds but more time still needs to be spent on finding fractions of shapes and numbers. Equivalence between fractions is developed with the help of pictures and diagrams. This leads on to ordering fractions with the same denominator. One of the quirks of fractions, which some children find hard to understand, is that as the denominator gets larger the size of the number gets smaller (e.g. one tenth is smaller than one fifth; one twentieth is smaller than one tenth and so on). We have some excellent ordering fractions pages for Year 3 to help consolidate this concept. As well as these, some of our most popular worksheets are the sets of finding fractions of numbers, with questions such as ‘What is one sixth of 30?’ Again, the link between fractions and division needs to be constantly reinforced. As the term progresses children will be introduced to adding and subtracting fractions, but only with the same denominator and with totals up to one whole one. Simplifying fractions is important at this stage and children should be encouraged to write fractions in their simplest form. (e.g. two sixths can be simplified to one third). Year 3: Time Again, a 3 week block on time, showing how important it is. Days of the week and months of the year need to be learned and by the end of the block children are expected to be able to read the time from an analogue clock to the nearest minute. These are, in themselves, major targets. Luckily, we have some great pages on both these topics. Using a.m. and p.m. is also introduced in Year 3 and we have some excellent pages on converting a time shown using a.m. or p.m. Children will also become familiar with the 24 hour clock. This means that reading the time on digital clocks has to be introduced. It is also important that children use the 24 hour clock correctly when writing the time (e.g. 8 a.m. is written as 08:00). Fortunately children have much better access to digital clocks than in the past, with most phones showing the time in this way. We also have pages on solving simple problems involving time and working out how long it is between two times.