Maths - Whatever the weather!

It might be January and rather chilly but that doesn't stop the children in Ganges putting their coats on and getting out in the grounds for some outdoor maths. 
We are thinking about positive and negative numbers here as we see how long a positive and negative numberline we can make across the playground. You can see we used metre sticks so that the numbers were all equally spaced out and once we had done that we investigated the differences between some positive and negative numbers.

Being negative in maths

Some of the class worked inside and they used Numicon tiles to create a positive and negative numberline. It was a clever idea of the group to show the negative side of the line by placing the tiles under the 'line' and the positive numbers above. It shows the difference between the two types of numbers really well.

Clearly showing negative numbers.

Doubling and Halving Challenges

Something 'fishy' about this!

It isn't often that it is good to get questions incorrect but carrying out an investigation into which numbers double and halve using these triangular grids has given us just that opportunity.
As you can see in this example, starting with the number 6 works here. As well as working up the grid we also worked down the grid.
Doing this we found out that numbers such as 18, 30, 42 do not give us an answer with a whole number (the rule was we couldn't get to a fraction or a decimal number).
Working on questions like this where we are uncertain about the outcome really helps us develop our mathematical understanding and is another way of helping us respond positively to challenges.

Using Number Trios

Practical resources help our learning.

The children in Ganges have started the  new term full of vigour as they continue to build on the knowledge they have developed so far this school year. Knowing that there are many different ways to solve maths problems is a key point to understand and using number trios for addition and subtraction is an area they have been working on in class. 
Using the practical Numicon tiles always helps to get the point across visually. We love a challenge in Ganges and it is clear from this book that the work was extended with a more challenging question to really test the understanding. 

Sharing learning with the rest of class.