Years 5 and 6 finished off their year of exciting Mathematics with a mass 24 Game! Many of the children have been having weekly sessions with volunteers from Price Waterhouse Coopers and sadly this successful relationship is coming to an end. The volunteers are now shifting to work only in Secondary Schools. However, we shall be continuing the 24 Clubs and competing against other schools in 2014! Thank you to all the volunteers from PWC for the time they have given us and the enjoyment thet have added to mathmematics at Charles Dickens.
Mathematic Champions
Congratulation to all the children pictured who are currently excelling at ‘Mathletics’ , our on-line maths homework, challenge and competition website. Well done to all the additional winners of the World Maths Day competition from Year 6 for representing the school so magnificently.
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Roll on Mathletics!
We have launched Mathletics at Charles Dickens for Key Stage 2! This online resource allows children to practise their mathematics, complete their homework and develop their computer skills. They can even compete against other mathematicians from around the world! So far 51 children have completed enough calculations to be awarded a virtual certificate and here they are. Congratulations to all of you.
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Go to www.mathletics.co.uk to see if any children from Charles Dickens are in the Halls of Fame (these are based on the week so are constatnly changing)
Mathletics in Year 3/4
Chuzzlewit Class have been trialling a piece of Mathematics Software called Mathletics. This allows them to practise their maths online, challenge children across the UK and around the World at mental maths and keep their teachers informed via progress reports over the internet. Chuzzlewit have been maths stars this week both in school and at home. Furthermore, all the feedback from them and parents has been positive so far so watch this space as we may well have it for all of Key Stage 2 from September!
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Southwark 24 Tournament
Congratulations to our team for representing the school at the Southwark 24 Game Tournament. Twelve Schools participated in the first of two preliminary rounds with the four highest scoring teams gaining places to the Finals. The hall was full of nerves, whirling brains of mathematical formulae and, above all, enjoyment at competing in this exciting subject. Our team played brilliantly, with every member scoring points on each round and winning some individual rounds. When the final scores were read out Charles Dickens took 5th place with 188 – only 1 point behind 4th, 4 behind 3rd and 8 behind 2nd place! A close and nail biting competition all round. Despite not making it through to the next round, the children enjoyed it and, as ever, were a credit to the school with their manners, politeness and friendliness when meeting pupils from other schools. Well done!
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On your marks, set……24!
Today the members of 24 Club took part in an exhilarating and nerve racking tournament to select the squad who will represent the school at the Southwark Tournament. The children have been honing their skills with their Maths’ Volunteers, from PWC (Price Waterhouse Coopers), on Wednesday and Thursday lunchtimes and today they tested them in a competitive arena.
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The children were split in to teams of three and rotated from table to table collecting points for both themselves and the team. Look at the photos and see how many cards you can solve. For each card you need to use all the numbers, any of the four operations and make a total of 24. The first person to solve it gets the points. The number of dots in the corner shows how many points each card is worth – 3 being the most challenging.
Well done to the individual winners and to the winning team. Watch this space to see who is selected to represent the school at the tournament in June. A big thank you goes to Mrs Taylor who ran the event and to the Volunteers for PWC for umpiring mathematical decisions and presenting the certificates.
The Ugly Bug Ball
Last week, Gargery and Little Dorrit treated us to a wonderful musical assembly that taught us all about mini-beasts, creepy crawlies and and their relationships with farmers and gardeners.
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The pupils were dressed in a wide array of colours and costumes representing, amongst other things, ladybirds, bees and ants. The children performed and sang to a backdrop of plants, artwork and wildlife. They even found time to bring in a song about their number bonds to ten!
Well done Reception, Miss Henderson and Mrs McKay and thank you to all the parents for their enthusiastic support.
Tiny Tim’s Maths Tips – Year 1 and 2 Addition continued…
The next stage is children producing more formal recordings using their own ‘blank number lines‘ (often referred to as BNL). Children are able to ‘count on‘ in ones (they do this in their heads but record their ‘working out‘) and circle the answer. (Slides 1, 2, 3 and 4)
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When dealing with adding two digit numbers (eg 14 as opposed to a one digit number such as 8) they need to ‘partition‘. They split the smaller number in to ‘tens‘ and ‘units‘ and then on their number line first of all ‘jump on’ the ‘T‘ and then the ‘U‘. (Slides 5, 6, 7 and 8). This is even more challenging when crossing the tens (in this case over 50)
In the final example (Slides 9 to 14) the child models using the above method and a ‘more efficient‘ method. This can be solves by jumping in tens and ones or, as on slides 13 and 14, in a jump of 20 and a jump of 3.
I hope this helps with addition at home. Remember giving maths a context makes it more real, more fun and gives it a reason for learning it. Watch this space for the next blog on Multiplication…….
Tiny Tim’s Maths Tips – Year 1 and 2 Addition
Children understand addition best when it is taught alongside subtraction. Furthermore learning is better if given a context as mathematical concepts are difficult to grasp without them. For younger children counting people and objects (toys, buttons etc.) and questions such as ‘There are three children at a table and two more sit down. How many now?’ leading to older children’s understanding of ‘A drink costs 56p and an apple 24p. How much do they cost altogether?’ provide children a reason for learning addition. Calculation methods are taught and learnt to be used to solve problems such as these.
As with subtraction, children first need to use ‘concrete‘ resources, such as cubes, and will physically combine and touch them to find the total. (Slides 1 and 2)
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Children then start creating their own informal ways of recording this. (Slides 3 and 4)
As children experience ‘100 squares’ and ‘number lines’, they are able to count to higher numbers they use these to support their calculating skills. Children learn to count forwards, ‘one more‘ (and later ‘ten more‘), and use given ‘number lines‘ to solve addition. (Slides 5 and 6)
24 Club
How would you make 24? What times tables, addition, subtraction and division facts would you use? Could you do it under pressure? Could you explain it without stuttering or making mistakes?
These are some of the challenges faced by children in Years 5 and 6 who attend ’24 Club’ on Wednesday and Thursday lunchtimes with volunteers from PWC (Price Waterhouse Coopers). Later in the term there will be an inter-house competition to choose the three fastest players and they will represent Charles Dickens at the Southwark 24 Tournament in June.
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Have a go yourself. The rules are that you must use all 4 numbers, can only use them each once, can use any of the four operations and the answer must be 24. The cards with one dot (worth one point in the tournament) in the corner are the easiest and often have multiple ways of solving; the cards with three dots (worth three points in the tournament) are far more of a challenge. Good luck!