Counting down the days

Ganges class were faced with another difficult problem to solve once December came around. With thirty pupils in class and just fourteen actual school days in December how were they going to organise things so that everyone had a chance to open a door on the huge advent calendar?

Well with everyone very keen to receive an advent chocolate from the Fair Trade Advent calendar the children soon figured out that:-

14 x 2 = 28

So if we have a pupil opening the door on the large Advent calendar at morning registration and another at afternoon registration we could then squeeze the last two in on the last two days of term when we have three openings each day. Just shows how creative you can be when there is the offer of a Christmas chocolate!

Multiplication Challenges

Dealing with missing information in maths problems is a brilliant way to really get you thinking and that is just what some of the children in Ganges have been doing recently. In this particular question the children were given the answers in a multiplication grid with the task of discovering which numbers were needed to arrive at a series of different totals. 

Everyone found it tricky at first and here is a clear explanation of how one pupil solved it.

Rounding Rounding - Read all about it!

Another busy morning of maths

In Ganges class we know that maths isn't just something we do in school, it is all around us in our everyday lives. So what better way to think about rounding numbers than to spend some time browsing through the newspaper in a maths lesson! Some of us used' First News' , the child friendly newspaper, to find headlines and articles with numbers in them. We then used those numbers to make a poster where we rounded those very numbers to the nearest 100. 

Here's the rounding part

 Other members of the class needed to work on two digit addition problems before they then rounded the answer to the nearest ten. The main thing is to remember that for 1,2,3 and 4 you round down and for 5,6,7,8 and 9 you round up. 

Calculating before rounding

 As you can see we use lots of resources in maths which is fun. You would be amazed at how quickly we can get everything tidied up when it is time to go out to the playground!

Time for Fishy to tidy up!

Triangular symmetry

We know that triangles have three sides and that their angles always add up to 180 degrees but how many lines of symmetry do they have? That is exactly what we have been figuring out. To make things more challenging we have been examining four different types of triangles. Can you name the ones we have made?

L to R - right angled triangle, scalene, isosceles with an equilateral triangle in the middle

Symmetrical Patterns

The final piece is in place

An object is symmetrical when one half is a mirror image of the other half and using our Numicon resources has been ideal to show exactly that. With the ten by ten baseboards we have worked in pairs to create some amazing symmetrical patterns. Very colourful along with being perfectly symmetrical.

Perfect partner work

Some important maths vocabulary we have used this week are the terms:- vertical, horizontal and diagonal. The easy way to remember horizontal is to think about the horizon when you are at the seaside and looking out to sea. Diagonal is famous as it is mentioned in the Harry Potter films!

Diagonal symmetry is even trickier

Challenging challenges

If 9 +  10 = 19 then ...

Applying our thinking to challenging questions is something we regularly do in class. It can be difficult to figure out what you are doing at first and it can make you feel a bit unsure but using the maths skills we have been using in class helps a great deal. Especially when you are missing lots of information like in the question above!

This question is a great example of the 'real life' problems we are challenged with. The important thing to do for this type of problem is to show your thinking as you are trying to puzzle it out.

Indoor and outdoor maths

Team work in action

Sometimes in maths it's just too much to do things on your own. So what do we do, well we work as a team. So when we were set the task of making a continuous numberline to 1,000 it was just the sort of job for team work.

Once we had measured carefully so we had enough increments to help our counting we took advantage of the lovely autumn sunshine and collected a selection of items from the grounds The final job was to then decided exactly where we should place the conkers, leaves and sticks on our enormous numberline.

Perfect weather for outdoor maths

Solving Number Trios

A definite thumbs up for great thinking

Solving maths questions when you are given all of the information you need is one thing but what what athinking bout when you are given the answer and have to find the missing information! Confused? You could be, if you haven't got your maths brain switched on fully!

Ganges have been solving all manner of number trio problems and then taking things a step further with the linked family of calculations. As long as you understand that addition is the inverse (opposite) of subtraction you are fine.

Using Numicon to check is a good idea

Understanding partitioning

Careful partitioning in action

We use lots of different special words in maths and 'partitioning' is one we have been thinking about in the first part of the autumn term. It means 'splitting numbers into smaller factors or into place values'. 

In class we have been working on addition and subtraction problems using the place value grids with the practical equipment. This has helped us to split numbers up carefully along with developing our understanding of two and three digit numbers.

Sharing our resources is always a good idea

And the answer is, 10, 20, 30, 40, 43

Practical Maths

Great team work

Using practical resources in maths helps us in so many ways. We can see and feel what a number looks like along with writing our understanding down. We have been thinking about the different maths facts we can use to get to certain figures and here are a couple of examples of our thinking.
The number rods are not only really colourful they also fit perfectly in the number track so we can check our thinking. 

Five different multiplications to make 20

Who said you only do maths at school!

The new Ganges class have started the year brilliantly by thinking of all the different ways they have used their maths skills over the summer break. Just look at all of the interesting things they have been doing which involved them using their maths brains. From using shells for beach multiplication, to carefully measuring the ingredients for a cake to the length of time the pirate boat took to return to the port - the new Ganges class have been using maths throughout the summer. Great preparation for the new school year.