Category: Mathematics

Learning by Questions Ambassador

Cannon Park Primary School is now an Ambassador for Learning by Questions. LbQ is an award-winning teaching tool, which enables children to answer questions sets online right across the curriculum. Feedback from our children has been very positive and we’re happy to be an ambassador for such a high-quality online platform, which helps all children achieve their potential in school.

 

Maths at home

Today I would like to share one of my favourite teaching resources. NRICH.

NRICH is an innovative collaboration between the Faculties of Mathematics and Education at the University of Cambridge, part of the University’s Millennium Mathematics Project.

NRICH provides thousands of free online mathematics resources for ages 3 to 18, covering all stages of early years, primary and secondary school education – completely free and available to all.

Aims:

  • Enrich and enhance the experience of the mathematics curriculum for all learners
  • Develop mathematical thinking and problem-solving skills
  • Offer challenging, inspiring and engaging activities
  • Show rich mathematics in meaningful contexts
  • Work in partnership with teachers, schools and other educational settings to share expertise

Maths at home

Whether you are a parent, a carer, a teacher, or have multiple ‘hats’, you will find that our latest Primary and Secondary Features contain a wealth of resources to support learners working mathematically at home. Each feature contains age-appropriate activities which have been grouped in the following ways:

  • Just Jottings – to have a go at these activities, you need nothing more than pencil and paper. This is a great opportunity to encourage learners to think about different ways of representing their ideas and recording their findings. When doing mathematics, there is often a phase of ‘messy maths’ while working on a problem; the neatly written solutions that appear in maths textbooks only emerge after lots of scribbling, doodling and jotting!
  • Interactive Games and Puzzles – these activities all include an online interactive environment, where learners can explore and play, in order to test out ideas and make discoveries. (You can read more about using interactivities to promote curiosity in our article.)
  • Maths to Take Your Time Over – these activities are worth exploring over a few days or even a few weeks. Many of them are ‘low threshold high ceiling’, meaning they are easy to get started on, and they can be extended so may keep someone absorbed for a long time! Learners can keep coming back to the same activity, mulling ideas over in between periods of focused thinking, and recording their ideas and findings, whether independently or with support from you. Some low threshold high ceiling activities are appropriate over a range of ages so could be explored by several members of the family together.
  • Print It Out – to get the most out of these activities, you need access to a printer (black and white copies are usually fine).

In addition, the Primary Feature includes:

  • Homemade Maths – these activities need some everyday bits and pieces. Anything will do! You can use buttons, scraps of paper or even sweets as counters. Create your own digit cards from paper or card, and use Lego bricks instead of Multilink (interlocking cubes). If you have a printer you can print off number grids, circle templates, dotty grids, dominoes etc. from the printables page.

Maths at Home

Over the past week or so, many educational companies have been offering their online services free of charge. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, this can be quite overwhelming. To help parents support their children, I’ll be adding useful websites every so often, but just one at time – bitesize websites!

This morning, I heard Carol Vorderman on the radio. Working together with Pearson Education, she has created a website called The Maths Factor, which is an online maths tutoring site for primary school-aged children. At the heart of The Maths Factor is The Maths Factor Course. The Course is organised into 32 topics, designed so that children continuously build on and practise basic arithmetic skills, particularly: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Children progress through the topics by completing daily sessions.

The Topics

The topics are in sequence with the national curriculum. The Maths Factor Course has 3 main ‘stages’, each represented by a bird character:

  • Explorer bird: Key Stage 1 level topics
  • Adventurer bird: Lower Key Stage 2 level topics
  • Pioneer bird: Upper Key Stage 2 level topics

To make sure that we don’t interfere with what children are being taught in school, we cover all of the key teaching methods.

The Sessions

The Maths Factor’s short sessions have been designed for daily use – repetition consolidates learning, so we want children to practice, practice, practice! We teach concepts in small steps, emphasising fun and ultimately increasing children’s confidence.

Each session starts with a lively video tutorial by Carol, followed by a fun warm-up and then a practice. There are over 1,000 of these sessions, arranged within the 32 topics.

Fractions

This morning, Year 2 had a fun Maths lesson learning all about fractions. They were given pieces of paper and were asked to fold them into halves and quarters (we even had some eighths and tenths!). The children all showed great enthusiasm for learning different parts of a whole.

Visiting Teachers

This morning Year 6 were lucky enough to have a Maths lesson taught by some renowned Chinese teachers. The children were tasked with finding the code to unlock a door, and were mesmerised with how the computer knew what numbers they were all thinking. Mr Young even had a go! What an exciting, informative lesson!

Right Angles

This morning, Year 3 have been busy making videos about right angles. As part of the videos, they have hunted down right angles outside and explained what makes a right angle. Enjoying the sunshine has been an added bonus!

 

 

Primary Maths Team Challenge

A group of Year 6 children spent the day at the University of Warwick taking part in the UKMT Primary Maths Challenge. Many scores across Coventry and Warwickshire competed in teams of four completing various challenges, which tested their teamwork and communication skills as well as their mathematical knowledge. The children from Cannon Park did exceptionally well, sharing ideas, demonstrating their impressive mathematical abilities and supporting each other. Although they didn’t win the competition, they did win the Teamwork Award. Well done to everyone involved!

Symmetry

As part of Outdoor Learning Day, Year 4 had great fun practising their estimation skills in preparation for next week. Following this, they made symmetrical pictures using natural resources.