Maths at home
Summer Holiday
Keeping children's skills sharp and ready for the next year of learning.
The long Summer holiday is a time when we know children's academic learning can go out of long term memory with some important learning lost. Learning is about regular and routine practice and holidays can be rather irregular times with less routine. This makes them great and Mathematics over a holiday should be different from the day to day of a school week. There are lots of fun holiday things families can enjoy over Summer, different ways of giving children the routine practice that will serve them so well in September. The list below offers some things that can keep your child's Maths (and some Science) as they left it in July. They could even return in September knowing and understanding even more!
Regular Mathematics practice is just as important in late July and through August as it is the rest of the year. Whether number bonds (numbers that add together to make 10, 100, 1000, 1) or times tables learned in school, regular and quick quizzing will help. There are lots of resources below.
Games are a low stress, fun way of embedding important mathematical concepts from counting on (in board games like Snakes and Ladders which has the added advantage of being a 100 square) to card games like 21 (for adding up to get to 21). They are fun ways for the whole family to play together and cementing in Mathematics learning.
Cooking and baking is just full of maths. Reading scales, understanding grams and kilos (or indeed pounds and ounces!), timing the oven all put Maths in a real life context where it is so well learned. And if having extra guests or if people are out you can double or halve - teaching about ratio and proportion (hard) in a low threat, practical way).
Estimating the cost of shopping the Supermarket can help with quick mental calculation and rounding up or down to the nearest £1 or (for older children) even 50p. Children who know the cost of living might even nag less in the shop and will be entertained and may even be distracted from noticing the not on the list but enticing objects that might be described as land-fill pending!
Reading maps and planning journeys will help Geography and Mathematical concepts like grid references. Planning the journey can also help some children with autistic type difficulties engage with travel, pre-processing the experience.
Maths at Home
Page 42 of our Curriculum document (see below) has ideas for Maths at Home. You will need to visit the document for the links to work.
We use a number of online resources for Maths in school and all of these can help make learning fun at home too.
White Rose Maths online is Miss Watkins' recommendation for online maths.
first4maths provide professional development and resources for us in school and have expanded their brief to Maths for you are home in the current lockdown. Their material is up to date and in line with the National Curriculum and Maths Mastery approach we use in school.
https://nrich.maths.org/ Nrich provides deeper reasoning activities for children of all ages across the Mathematics curriculum. Activities provide opportunities to explore and discuss children's Mathematical understanding.
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ Top Marks provides learning across the curriculum and has some lovely things for all subjects. Some families may find that getting children to engage in learning might be easier if following their child's interests and lead.
https://mathsticks.com/my/ Mathsticks has some really lovely games and fun activities for fluency and enjoyment. You will need to create a log-on to access the materials.
https://corbettmaths.com/primary/ Corbett Maths comes well recommended by parents.
Carol Vordeman brought out Maths Factor for the Pandemic.
