Which one is missing?

A full set of dominoes has twenty eight different tiles. But how do you find which one is missing when you are deliberately given an incomplete set?
You use your systematic thinking skills that's what you do! So that is just what the pupils of Ganges class have done. It was great to see everyone rising to the challenge and working step-by-step to find the piece, or even pieces, they needed to complete their domino set.

Thinking systematically

Systematic team work

Knowing how to think and work systematically is a great skill to develop for continued maths understanding, so that is just what we have been doing in class. Tackling each aspect of the problems given step-by-step as you work with a partner also helps us to cooperate and discuss what we are doing with each other. 

Here we have worked out the different ways to make a 3 X 3 square using just Numicon 1 and 2 tiles. Very important to think systematically so that we discover all of the possibilities.

A tasty maths lesson

Let's solve this and then we can eat!

The children in Ganges have all been working on solving challenging fraction problems based around a maths story of a number of children going on a picnic and sharing the food out. To make it clearly a real life problem we had a number of freshly baked and deliciously smelling French baguettes in class.

Once they had written their maths story with the key fraction facts included in the narrative it was time to eat. It seemed that working our brains hard had given everyone a good appetite!

Different ways to arrive at the same answer

It is sometimes the simple equipment which is the best and it doesn't come much simpler than interlocking plastic cubes. These simple, yet effective, cubes have been so useful in giving a clear visual on the different multiplication problems that end up with the exact same answer.

We were working in partner pairs on this work which also led to a good deal of mathematical discussion and great team work.

You write it down and I will show it with cubes

Venn diagrams and times tables

Knowing your times tables is one of the important things we work on in Year 4. When thinking about two different times tables at once it can be quite a challenge. To help our understanding we have been using a practical Venn diagram where the answers from one times table go on one side, the answers from another times table go on the other side and the same answers that appear in both of them go in the middle.

Seeing it in this practical way where we have to physically place the numicon tiles really helps in securing the times tables facts.

Year 4 + Year 6 = Success

Solving a maths challenge

As part of our Science/STEM week we have been working on a whole range of fun maths challenges kindly loaned to school by the university. Children from Ganges class spent an engaging lesson in the Year 6 classroom where the older pupils worked with the younger mathematicians to assist them in trying to complete all manner of tasks.

From number to 2D shapes to time and compass points, the activities most certainly ensured the children from Ganges had to draw on all different aspects of their maths learning to have any chance of solving the challenges. The Year 6 children would drop in a gentle hint if it was needed and worked really well as mentors to all of Ganges class.

Year 4 + Year 6 = Success

STEM Week Maths Measuring

As everyone in Ganges class now knows, STEM stands for Science Technology Engineering and Maths - STEM. In the first week of February we have had a whole school Science/STEM week and this gave us the perfect opportunity to use maths in science experiments. 
After hearing a story which posed the question of which type of ball would bounce the highest the children set about designing a 'fair test' to see if they could answer that very question. 

The experiment in action

The children used a metre ruler to ensure that they dropped the ball from the same height and also had a clear point of reference for the bounce measurement.

Watching carefully to get an accurate measurement

Everyone had a role and here you can see the experimenter, the observer and the data recorder testing a tennis ball. The groups worked on either a wooden floor, carpet or an outside surface so they could see if the type of surface had an impact on the results of how high the balls bounced. 

The results made for interesting reading which generated a great deal of mathematical discussion.