Year 6 Mental Arithmetic: Sets 9 and 10

The next two sets of ten mental arithmetic questions are now available. This week the questions concentrate on decimals and fractions and cover a number of important concepts, including: a. Dividing pounds and pence by 10. For example, £4.60 divided by ten is £0.46 or 46 pence. The easiest way...

Year 1 maths worksheet: Position

A concept which we tend to take for granted is the idea of position, but it is still something that many children need to be taught. On these worksheets the three dolphins need to be coloured according to the clues given. The clues use a range of positional vocabulary, such...

The Ancient Egyptian method of multiplying

In year 6 most children will be familiar with the standard written method of multiplication which depends on a good knowledge of times tables, or multiplication tables. The Ancient Egyptians hadn't quite worked out 'times tables' so that they had to use a different method of multiplying which involves 'decomposing'...

Year 6 mental arithmetic: Sets 7 and 8

This week's mental arithmetic questions for Year 6 are all about fractions. They are looking mainly at equivalent fractions and checking that children know that: 1. there are two quarters in a half 2. there are ten tenths in one whole one 3. to find two tenths of a number,...

Consecutive numbers in a 3 by 3 square

This is really a mini version of investigating a 100 number square, but many children will feel more confident when faced with a less daunting starting point. Choose any nine consecutive numbers and place them in order (from left to right) in a 3 x 3 square. Add the diagonals....

Year 6 Mental Arithmetic: Sets 5 and 6

This week our year 6 Mental Arithmetic questions concentrate on multiplying and dividing numbers. The first two questions are quite straightforward division eg share 72 by 9. There is a considerable body of opinion that as well as knowing tables (eg 8 x 9 = 72) children should also know...