Today, in order to explore problems that require working backwards, Year 6 played a game called Nim. They had to work strategically and try to plan ahead in order to work out what moves to make to win the game and force their partner to lose. The class were excellent at suggesting strategies and testing whether or not these worked. They rose to the challenge each time we made the game more difficult. Next week, we’ll apply these skills to some written word problems.
Year 6 have been looking at multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000 including decimal numbers. They were set the challenge of answering the questions pinned up around the room. The questions were titled with countries involved in World War 1 and had to be answered in alphabetical order. The class used the place value sliders to support their understanding of the process. They were then given a challenge to find their way through a maze of multiplication and division using different sets of criteria.
There was great engagement in phonics and maths today. In phonics, some children played a game where they had to collect the sounds I said and then blend the sounds together to read the word. This was fabulous as we were in the woods with lots of places to hide the sounds. Inside, children worked together in pairs to order numbers from 1 to 20. This is quite tricky but by encouraging one another and taking turns they managed to complete the task. Well done everyone.
Great team work!
Reception children discovered frost and ice outside today. They practiced writing in the frost with either their fingers or a stick. Children developed the skill of estimating, that we have been learning in maths by dropping the ice and estimating how many pieces it had broken into. They checked their answers by counting the smaller pieces of ice!
In their maths learning yesterday, Year 4 were been looking at the properties of shapes and lines. They looked at parallel and perpendicular lines and had to identify them within the Union Jack flag.
Using this knowledge of lines, they then had to create their own flag which contained a certain amount of parallel and perpendicular lines. We then began to look at similarities and differences between shapes. The discussions the children were having together were amazing! There was lots of mathematical vocabulary used such as lines of symmetry, number of vertices and right angles.
Well done year 4!
This week, year 4 have been looking at different types of data in maths. We have looked at discrete data and how that can be represented, and then did the same for continuous data. We then collected our own data, decided which type of data it is and represented it in a graph/chart.
Some children were asked to roll a dice 50 times and record what number was rolled each time, others were asked to jump for 2 and a half minutes, and record how many jumps they had done at 30 second intervals. I was so impressed with how Year 4 did this, and although they might have been slightly out of breath, they were able to collect their own data and represent this in a line graph or a bar chart.
Can you tell which activity produces discrete data and which produces continuous?
Today in Power 5, children were challenged to find as many different ways they could to make 20. Look at all the different ways we came up with. Can you think of any more ways?
Below are links to some great web sites which use games to support your child in Maths:
Top Marks – Maths Games, times table
Today in maths we were using water to help us figure out ‘missing number’ questions. In two teams, children used different methods before coming back into class and sharing either the water measuring method or the written inverse method. We then discussed which one is easier to use and which one they preferred. Unsurprisingly, the new water method was by far the favourite!
Year 5 have worked so hard for the past few weeks and have demonstrated determination and perseverance through their Shakespeare Production. Now that the play has come to an end I wanted to ‘reward’ the children by having a ‘fun learning’ day with many different activities that enhance their learning, especially after the long-exhausting evening at the theatre.
Year 5 have played a game called “Mathopoly” which helps them with their Maths skills. I was really pleased to see the excitement on their faces and the eagerness to get as many correct answers as possible. Year 5 think that this is such a fun way of practicing their times tables and being challenged at the same time.
