What’s new in Maths Matters Resources?
NUMBER – MONEY ACTIVITIES – Counting by 25s Money Posters Grades for 3/4
Effective mental strategies come from plenty of practice. Here are four Counting by 25s Money Posters to help your Stage 2 students find a way to mentally add multiples of 25 without the need for pencil and paper or a calculator to help them. There’s a poster for 25 cents, $2.50, $25 and $250. Daily practice counting aloud will help them find their own way to visualise the pattern.
And if you enjoy using those with your class, there is also a set of four Counting by 75s Money Posters too.
MEASUREMENT – LENGTH – Photographs – Flood Levels
Measuring the height of flood water is an effective strategy for comparing the awful effect of floods on a community. This tree near Renmark South Australia is a river gum that is well over 200 years old. It has seen, and lived through, at least 16 floods so it is now referred to as the “Tree of Knowledge“. Imagine all the information your students can collect using this photograph. The official peak height was 10.2 metres, a gigantic amount of extra water. What was the height of all the other floods? You could replicate these heights in your school playground and imagine what it must be like to experience such an event.
THE MATHS SESSION – PREASSESSMENT – 3D Objects
Open-ended assessments always seem to worry some teachers. How will I mark them? What will I expect as sensible answers? What will I do with the information I collect if it is all over the place? To help you we have included both an open-ended task and an example of a marking checklist. This is what I know about 3D Objects is great for assessing Stage 2 students. What do I know about Prisms and Pyramids is great for assessing Stage 3 students. Your students can reveal without any prompts what they do or don’t know about 3D Objects. Once you collect all their responses you can use the sample Checklist to tick each time they mention one of the content items. These are based on the expected outcomes for either Stage 2 students or Stage 3 students.
NUMBER – MULTIPLICATION & DIVISION – Language and Symbol Cards F/1/2
When your Stage 1 students construct and talk about their multiplication or division stories with real objects, you can record these under the objects with digit and Multiply and Divide Word Cards. e.g. 4 rows of 5 make 20. Much later, once you think they are ready, switch to the digit and Multiply and Divide Symbol Cards before reinforcing written recording in their workbooks. e.g. 4 x 5 = 20. To get started you need to photocopy these colourful cards, laminate then cut them out and store in a clip lock bag for ready use by individuals and small groups.
Keep your eye on this What’s New? section because Duffy is also working on a matching set of neon symbols to go wit the neon digits. Coming soon!
NUMBER – MULTIPLICATION & DIVISION – Activities: Skip Count by 2s, 5s and 10s Cards
These sets of early multiplication and division Skip Counting Cards are great for small group discussion and counting multiples aloud with your Stage 1 students. Photocopy, laminate then cut out for more permanent use. Easy to store in an envelope or clip lock plastic bag. Count aloud by 2s, 5s or 10s as you place a card on the table. Talk about 6 groups of 2, 3 groups of 5 or 8 groups of 10. What will be 2 more? 5 more? 10 more? Match the number cards to each group as you count too. What other maths activities can your students create with these cards?
WHOLE SCHOOL – MATHS IMPROVEMENT PLANS – Resources Checklists
Checking your current maths resources is an important job for your Maths Improvement Team. What is available in each classroom? Do you have a special Maths Storeroom? Do you have all the essential resources for each sub-strand you teach? Are there enough for the numbers of students you have in each class? We provide a wide variety of Resources Checklists that are easy-to-use and follow a suggested plan so that each Term you check just some of the sub-strands. You can mark the checklists with a tick, a number or whatever you like. They are live documents, not fixed pdfs, so you can adapt them to your own formats too. It’s never too late to start checking your resources, so what are you waiting for?
WHOLE SCHOOL – STAFF MEETINGS – 2D Hexagon Workshop
One of Bev’s favourite shapes – the 2D Hexagon. Here are 18 beautiful Powerpoint slides all ready to go. A unique feature of our Maths Matters Resources website. A big help for your school’s Maths Improvement Team when planning our suggested 2D Shapes curriculum focus on hexagons. And always with an emphasis on how to develop and improve spatial visualisation skills in both your teachers and their students. Each slide comes with any necessary handouts, plus it is packed with Bev’s detailed suggestions about what to do, what to say and what to expect. Almost like having Bev look over your shoulder with words of encouragement.
NUMBER – ADDITION & SUBTRACTION – Activities Y567 – Magic Hexagon 1-24
Are your Stage 3 students up for this Magic Hexagon 1 – 24 Number Puzzle? There are almost 60 million different ways to solve this number puzzle but finding just one could prove to be a nightmare. All they have to do is rearrange these 24 triangle-shaped number tiles on the hexagon grid so that every row adds to exactly 75. So simple!!!!
MEASUREMENT – TIME – Photographs – Calendar – Seasons
Some people say this has been our best snow for many years. These 4 snow shots can be the start of some great mathematical discussions. When does it snow in Australia? Can it snow in any season? Does it snow everywhere? Why? Why not? What sort of clothing is best for the snow? What sort of shoes should you wear? What is the deepest snowdrift? How deep does the snow need to be before you can ski on it? How long does it take a 1 litre block of snow to completely melt? Which plants can live in the snow? Which animals? How many different ways can you travel on snow? e.g. ski, snow shoes, snowboard, snowmobile, ski-lift, sleds. What are the minimum and maximum temperatures when it snows? Use these delightful snow photographs to explore a wide range of mathematical situations with your students.
GEOMETRY – 2D PATTERNS PHOTOGRAPHS – Colourful Squares Quilt
Everyone can knit a square to make a colourful wool blanket to donate to your favourite charity. What size needles will you use? How much wool to knit just one square? How much will you need for all 42 squares? How much time will this take? What’s the fastest time for someone to knit just one square? Do stripes take longer to knit? Why? If wool costs $4.75 per ball, how much will the whole blanket cost? If you knit just 42 squares, how large should each square be in centimetres? Do blankets vary in size or are they all one measurement?
MATHS GRAPHICS – NUMBERS & SYMBOLS – Neon Digits 0 – 9
Woo hoo! What will you do with all these colourful 0 – 9 neon numbers? Duffy was inspired by art deco architectural design. He also wanted to create numbers that looked a little like jelly! Silly Duffy. Use these to create random numbers for your daily Mental Warm-ups. Add them to your worksheets. Challenge your students to create their own number activities. The world is waiting …
WHOLE SCHOOL – MATHS IMPROVEMENT PLANS – T3 Position Suggested Event
Whole School Planning is a unique feature of our website. Plenty there to help your schools’ Maths Improvement Team. In Term 3 we suggest you focus on revising Number : Multiplication and Division, Measurement : Mass and Geometry : Position. If you follow our suggested plans for Terms 1 – 4 you regularly revisit problems and challenges as well as check that your students are progressing well. Of course in your busy term you can’t do everything but at least you can touch base. Our suggestion for POSITION is to select a concept to explore with your class throughout the whole term. Not in a major but a minor way. You can create a special classroom display and integrate it into some home explorations too. Talk about some of the position language involved. The idea is that each class then prepares and presents a very short e.g. 3 minute, presentation at the Whole School Assembly in Week 10. That way every student gets to see/hear/feel a wide range of Position concepts. You’ll find this suggestion summarised in the Term 3/4 column.
MATHS SESSION – MENTAL WARMUPS – 2-digit x 1-digit Multiplication Minute Masters
Fabulous, easy-to-use daily practice strips for when your students are ready to develop their own mental strategies for multiplying a 2-digit x 1-digit number. How soon before they are able to answer all 25 questions in each level in just 1 minute? Ready to go with all answers provided so you can focus on what you do best. Your students will be able to correct their own work together. Perfect for Stage 3 students in particular. Why not offer a special award at your school assembly to every student who reaches Level 6 with success? You’ll find these in the Grades 5/6/7 column.
NUMBER & ALGEBRA – MULTIPLICATION PHOTOGRAPHS – 3 limes
How can you use this photograph of 3 limes to enhance your multiplication session with Stage 1 or 2 students? e.g. Grade 2: Copy and paste this photograph to create multiple groups of 3 on an A4 page then enlarge it to A3 as a poster. Use this for your daily counting by 3s. Or copy this page several times then cut out each group of 3 and store in a paper bag. Ask one student to empty it out, then put a group of 3 into a paper bag while they count by 3s aloud. Grades 3 & 4: Ask students to suggest a price for 3 limes. For example, 3 for $2. How many limes can you buy for $10? $20? How much juice is in 1 lime? 3 limes? 10 limes? How many limes will you need to squeeze to make 1 litre of lime juice? What else can you use this photograph for?
MEASUREMENT – LENGTH PHOTOGRAPHS – Danger Sign
Mathematics is all around us. This danger sign warns you about both depth and width. What does this sign mean? What does it want you to do or not do? How do you know? Where might you find a sign like this in your suburb? How large a hole can you make before you might hit a cable? How far does this warning extend? Can you build a garden in the is area? Construct a shed? Can a council build a road in this area? Plenty to keep your students actively thinking.
MEASUREMENT – TIME ACTIVITIES – James’ Work Schedule Y567
When you work part-time you need to calculate how much time you spend working so you know how much money you will be paid. You can build a whole unit of work around our People Photographs, by asking your students to imagine how much each selected person might get paid per hour and when they might work during a week. The internet has plenty of examples so you can make your estimates quite realistic. We have one example of an activity for you here using the photograph for James the Barista – James’ Work Schedule.
MATHS GRAPHICS – MEASUREMENT – August Calendar 2014
We hope you are enjoying our wide range of calendars. For our August Calendar we have gone all green and gold. Calendars are a useful way to create a mental image of how time works over a longer period. Somehow your students need to make sense out of linking all the numbers, days and positions to help them think about the past, present and future. We’ve also included some sample questions to get you started. See The MATHS SESSION – Mental Warmups – TIME 10 Questions based on a Calendar Y34.
MATHS GRAPHICS – CREATURES – Red Kangaroo
Another one of Duffy’s fantastic graphics of Australian Animals. Did you know the Red Kangaroo is the world’s largest marsupial? Or that it can jump at up to 56 kilometres in one hour? Or that it can leap 8 metres in a single bound? Or that they can jump up to 1.8 metres high (the height of a human adult)? The mass of an adult kangaroo is about 90 kg. Red kangaroos live in groups called mobs. Their babies are called joeys.
In 2000, over 1 million kangaroos were killed through accidents and also for commercial meat, including pet food.
GEOMETRY – 3D PHOTOGRAPHS – Square Pyramid
Built way back in 1971, this glass square pyramid is home to the Sydney Tropical Centre, full of rainforest plants. This was about a decade before the famous Louvre Museum glass pyramid in Paris. It will later be knocked down and rebuilt as a $20 000 000 “Biome” structure, to be completed in 2015. How many different ways can your students find to construct a square pyramid?
NUMBER – PLACE VALUE PHOTOGRAPHS – Water Crane 21872
Imagine all the place value warm-ups you can do with this photograph from Sydney harbour of a 5-digit number, 21872. If you re-arrange the digits, what is the largest number you can make? The smallest? The second largest? What are 2 numbers this one is between? 2 more? 2 more? What is 20 000 less than this number? What if I add 100 000? Is it odd or even? How do you know? If this was how many litres of water you have, how many tonnes is that? If this number was how much money you have in the bank, can you buy a car with this? If so, which one? How many 10s in this number? How many 1000s? How many in the hundreds place? What is 10 times larger than this number? 10 times smaller? 100 times smaller? What have we forgotten to ask????