Mathematics at Home

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Mathematics at Home

• Ponsbourne St Marys School

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Mathematical Language

• Mathematical language is confusing to many
  children and adults.
• Need to contextualise the language. E.g. How many
  is 3 cars take away 2 cars?
• Use objects - dont make maths abstract
• Need to constantly use mathematical language at
  home and at school. Consistency.

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My Mathematical Study

• Studying Mathematical language for my Masters in
  Education at Cambridge University.
• Read around on the issue
• Analysed our planning
• Observed lessons
• Interviewed teachers and children

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Outcomes from my study

• Children became more confident in their use of
  mathematical language
• Children became better at solving word problems.
  E.g. If Kate had 12 cake and gave half to Jim and
  Bob ate half of Jims how many did Bob eat?
• Change in timetable to allow for discussion
  Oral and Mental starters
• WOW words displayed

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Importance of Mathematical Talk

• Mathematical discussion and talk aids
  understanding.
• Importance of maths talk at home children
  achieve more highly and understand
• Need to work together to give your child/ren the
  chance to understand and enjoy maths.

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Ideas for Maths at Home

• NUMBER
• Use more or less when comparing objects at
  home or out. E.g. Is there more blue bricks than
  red bricks?
• Sing counting rhymes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 10 in the
  bed, 5 current buns etc.
• Get a thermometer and look at the readings
  negative numbers
• To practice the times tables daily in the car?

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Ideas for Maths at Home

• COUNTING
• Counting objects how many dolls have you got?
  How many have brown hair? etc.
• Look at odd and even numbers on houses count
  the odd houses 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, etc.
• Play cards/dominoes- count the symbols/dots -
  snap
• Playing board games count the number on the
  dice move the correct number of squares.

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Ideas for Maths at Home

• ADDING AND TAKING AWAY
• Food -Count the number of chips on your plate. If
  you eat two how many will your have left?
• Shopping Sam has 4 items in his basket and you
  have 3. How many items do you have altogether?
• Playing You have two football teams of players
  how many do you have altogether One has been
  sent off how many do you have now?

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Ideas for Maths at Home

• MULTIPLICATION AND DIVISION
• Cooking - To work out how many potatoes to put in
  the pan if each person wants 4.
• 4 people times/multiplied by 4 potatoes equals 16
  potatoes.
• Playing -To share out the toys/sweets between
  them.
• 12 toys shared between 3 children equals 4 toys
  each.

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Ideas for Maths at Home

• MONEY
• Give children money to spend at the shop have
  to work out the cost of their item and the change
  they will get before they can buy it. Or find the
  correct change.
• Count the change in your pocket/purse together.
• Make a wish list in a catalogue and add up
  prices. How much change from 100?
• Give children the task of finding the
  cheapest/dearest baked beans in the shop. What is
  the difference in price from the cheapest to the
  dearest? How much could you save?

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Ideas for Maths at Home

• FRACTIONS, DECIMALS AND PERCENTAGES
• Ask them what fraction of the pizza/sweets/burgers
  /potatoes are on their plate? E.g. 3 out of 12
  3/12 ¼ one quarter or 0.25 or 25
• Ask what fraction/percentage of the cars in the
  car park are blue? Or the objects in the shopping
  basket are fruit/meat/veg?
• Try cutting an apple/banana/cake in
  half/quarter/thirds/quarters/fifths/sixths etc.
• Go shopping in the sale 10 of the price work
  out the new cost of the item.

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Ideas for Maths at Home

• TIME
• Ask children the time 24 hour
• How long until dinner/tv programme/school? Etc
• Time a journey to see how long it takes
• Look at a bus/train timetable and see how long
  they take
• Read the instructions on food to see how long it
  take to cook when will it be ready?
• Recap days of the week and months regularly

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Ideas for Maths at Home

• MEASURE
• Cook together and weigh out the ingredient
  grams, Oz, ml
• Estimate (guess) the distance you will drive and
  use the milometer to check who was closest. Will
  the next journey be shorter or longer?
• Compare weights of items - which is
  lighter/heavier?
• Use the scales at the supermarket ask them to
  get 500g of apples etc.
• Calculate the area and perimeter of a shape
  which one is bigger/smaller?

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Ideas for Maths at Home

• SHAPE 2D OR 3D
• Look at shapes around your house and when you are
  out cereal box, tissue box, coffee jar, post
  box, dustbin etc.
• Count how many triangles/squares/cubes/
  quadrilaterals/hexagons you can find make it a
  competition who can find the most?
• Count the sides/corners/faces/ edges/vertices of
  a shape and work out what it is.
• Play guess the object I spy a 3D shape with 6
  faces, 12 edges and 8 vertices. All the sides and
  angles are equal what is it?

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Ideas for Maths at Home

• SPACE
• Look at patterns with reflection draw/colour
  half a shape and try and draw the reflection.
• Use North, South, East, West, Forward, Right and
  Left when out walking. Try directing them to an
  object/prize turn 90o walk forward 5 paces

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Ideas for Maths at Home

• DATA
• To count the number of red/black/yellow cars that
  you drive/walk past and record in a tally chart
  put into a bar chart/pie graph
• To discuss the likelihood of something happening
  certain likely, even, unlikely, impossible
• Measure the temperature every day/week and record
  the temperature in a table line graph discuss
  the differences in temperature.

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Our Input

• To continue to teach Mathematics in a fun and
  varied way.
• To continue to encourage mathematical discussion
  and dialogue.
• To continue to invest money in games, apparatus
  and ICT
• To send home maths games weekly
• To support you in assisting your child in
  mathematics.

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Your Input

• To use some of these ideas of how you could
  support you child at home and to add more.
• To continue to increase mathematical discussion
  at home.
• To work together weekly playing the maths game
  using as much mathematical language as possible
  (use the white language sheet to help)
• To make maths fun and enjoyable work together
  and make it a game/challenge/competition rather
  than work
• To use the internet at home if you have it.
  www.educationcity.com
• www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk
• www.bbc.co.uk/schools/students
• www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks1bitesize
• www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize
• www.samlearning.com

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Ideas and Questions

• Please let us know of any new ways in which we
  could support you in assisting your child's
  mathematics at home
• Thank you for listening
• Any questions?