4 More Great Activities for Maths Week England
Maths Week England is back again and this year takes place between the 13th and 18th November. It’s a relatively new event in the teaching calendar, having only started in 2019. But 11,400 schools and 1.98 million pupils have got involved so far, so it’s fair to say it’s significant. Its goal is to ensure no child misses out on the opportunities that being a confident competent mathematician can give them, which is something we wholeheartedly support.
At its core, maths is all about identifying patterns, making predictions, spotting connections and solving problems, so this blog will focus on these areas. If you’re an avid Busy Things blog reader, you may remember we did the same thing last year but given we have so many wonderful maths activities to choose from, we’ve selected a different four activities this year. Read on to see what they are!
1. Patterns
Mathematicians say that maths is the study of pattern. There are patterns and structure in numbers and in geometry. Seeing patterns and structure in the world around us is a key mathematical trait, which we develop from the first days of life.
Our ‘Common multiples of 3, 4 and 8’ activity is a great activity to use to help children understand the patterns within the times tables.
Are there any numbers that appear in the 3 and 4 times tables? Any that appear in the 3, 4 and 8?
Some of your pupils not secure in this knowledge?
Why not use the times tables grid worksheets available in our Resource maker first?
By putting 3, 4 and 8 horizontally and value 1-12 vertically, they’ll be able to see where the same numbers appear!
2. Predictions
Following on from patterns come predictions. Here we look at how what has occurred in the past can help us work out what will happen in the future.
‘Mirror magic’ is a fantastic activity to support this. The children have to decide which shape will make the mirror image of what they see, and then change the size and positioning to help the shape fit.
Feel the need for a little competition? You could challenge your pupils to get the exact match in less than 10 clicks!
3. Connections
Making connections within the mathematics syllabus allows children to see how different concepts relate to one another and helps them simplify them in their minds. Understanding that adding 5 twice is the same as adding 10 once helps children check if they’ve found the right answer.
The ‘Number jump’ activity on Busy Things is great for securing this knowledge.
It’s suitable for children from Reception age right through to Year 4 and includes subtraction as well as addition calculations.
Need more of a challenge for your pupils? Get the children to work in pairs to see who can answer in the least number of jumps!
4. Problem-solving
Bringing maths into the real world is vital to help children understand its value and engage with it more. The Bus trip! element of our Time quiz does just that, challenging children to solve word problems involving time.
Which bus should they get on to arrive by a certain time? When will they get off if they get on at 10am?
They’re practical questions great for getting your Year 5 and Year 6 pupils thinking!
Summary
We hope this blog has given you some fresh ideas to incorporate into your Maths Week England programme of activities. Maths is a lot of fun, creative and practical too!
Want to see more activities?
If you’d like to learn more about our maths activities, why not look at our post from last year? Or, even better, try them for yourself by taking out a free 28-day trial with us! You’re more than welcome to have a virtual tour via Zoom too. If you’d like one, contact us here and we’ll get in touch!