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...

5 Digit Addition Investigation

This is a great little investigation which has plenty of extension possibilities for those with enquiring minds. Dom the Dragon is thinking of a number and we are given two rules about the number: 1. The digits add up to 5. 2. None of the digits is a zero. The...

Year 6 Mental Arithmetic: Sets 3 and 4

We have now published the second in our series of sets of mental arithmetic questions, suitable for Year 6 (10/11 yrs old). This week we are looking in particular at doubling, products and multiplying fractions by ten. Being able to double numbers is a very powerful mental strategy and can...