Maths is about creativity and making sense.

How many numbers can you create using the 4 digits 8,7,6,2?

This student found 24 possible combinations...do you agree?

Can you see how this student has created a system or pattern to cover all combinations.  How would you work the problem out?

Let's take the maths further - chocolate crackles - Year 5

So what is the maths in baking? on PhotoPeach

Chocolate crackles - Year 3-4

What is the maths in making chocolate crackles - Year 3-4 on PhotoPeach

Reading numbers to 100,000,000

Reading numbers to 100,000,000//mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/14f67eef2ff7eb1a


Reading numbers to 100,000,000//mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/14f67eef2ff7eb1a

Click on the link to hear us reading numbers to 100,000,000
We all took risks with our learning and we did make some mistakes.  It was OK making mistakes as it made us stop and think more deeply about how to read the number correctly.

Year 3 number detectives

We are number detectives.  We found so many numbers all around us.  Number detectives use the numbers to help solve problems.  The also use the magic of 10 to help them count large numbers. Look how we used the magic of 10 to help us!

Number detectives on PhotoPeach

Risk - Learning about face and place value.

This week the Year 5 girls have been learning the game below called risk.  They have become so skilled that they are now playing it by making and reading numbers to 100,000!  This is a great game to play at home.  All you need is a pack of cards and some paper to mark out place value houses.  The girls will tell you the names of the rooms in each house.

A game called Risk... Learning about face value and place value.

Who can make the largest number?
Take a card and decide how much is will be worth - 5...50...or 500
Once you decide on its value, you can't move it! That's a risk!
Take another card...decide how much it is worth 2...or 200?
What is the last card...6.  Put it in the 100's house...600

My number is 652...
You get dealt another card...and can choose to change any card....
The last card is dealt but before you look at it you need to decide which card it will replace....thats a big risk!

What happens when you change the place/value of a number...

What is the largest number you can make?

How many different numbers can you make by changing the place of your 3 digits.

Put your numbers in order from the smallest to the largest number.

What numbers could you create if we added more digits?

Year 5's discussion around what strong mathematicians will do and say when the learning gets tricky!

The Year 5 girls discussed what a maths session would look and sound like if they were working hard to reach a high level in maths.  Below is what they came up with-

Maths Week - tips to keep students motivated and thinking mathematically

Marvellous, magical, magnificent maths week

Maths is a buzz!  During maths week the children had the opportunity to estimate jellybeans in a jar, the number of weetbix Mr Stygall, Mr Harris and Mr Kinsey could consume in 2 minutes, how long Mrs Cameron would take to run around the field and how many people could fit inside Mrs Burns’ car?  On Friday everyone had the chance to dress up in something “mathematical” and wow – what amasing mathematical concepts and costumes people created! The maths was fun and had purpose - what great motivation for learning! 

When you visit an HNP maths class you will have seen that there is much more to maths than just remembering times tables and doing sums.  While these are still very important, your child also needs to be able to see patterns, to locate themselves and find their way, to know about the shapes that make up the spaces around them, to measure things, to tell the time, and to understand graphs and figures that are so much a part of our world now.  Above all, they need to be able to use the maths they know in everyday situations. 

Jo Boaler, a professor of mathematics at Stanford University, is nationally acclaimed for her research into effective teaching and learning of mathematics.  She is an inspiration for many teachers and parents.  At HNP we have taken on board many of her findings, resources and ideas that have been proven to inspire and excite students about mathematics. 

Her tips for parents in supporting their children to think mathematically and to be excited by maths are as follows-

Helping with maths at home

1. Encourage children to play maths puzzles and games. Award-winning mathematician Sarah Flannery reported that her maths ability and enthusiasm came, not from school, but from the puzzles she was given to solve at home (Flannery, 2002). Puzzles and games or anything with a dice will help kids enjoy maths and develop numeracy and logic skills.

2. Always be encouraging and never tell kids they are wrong when they are working on maths problems. Instead, find the logic in their thinking because there is always some logic to what they say. For example, if your child multiplies three by four and gets seven, say ‘Oh I see what you’re thinking; you’re using what you know about addition to add three and four. When we multiply we have four groups of three.’

3. Never associate maths with speed. It is not important to work quickly, particularly in the younger years, and we now know that forcing kids to work fast on maths is the best way to start maths anxiety for children, especially girls (Boaler, 2012).

4. Never share with your children the idea that you were bad at maths at school or you dislike it, especially if you are a mother. Researchers found that as soon as mothers shared that idea with their daughters, their daughter’s achievement went down (Eccles & Jacobs, 1986).

5. Encourage number sense. What separates high and low achievers in primary school is number sense, ie having an idea of the size of numbers and being able to separate and put numbers together flexibly (Gray & Tall, 1994). For example, when working out 29 + 56, if you take one from the 56 and make it 30 + 55, it is much easier to work out. The flexibility to work with numbers in this way is what is called number sense and it is very important. My book The Elephant In The Classroom: Helping Children Learn And Love Maths shares ideas of ways to develop number sense in younger and older children.

6. Perhaps most important of all, encourage a growth mindset, ie the idea that ability and smartness change as you work more and learn more. The opposite to this is a fixed mindset, where the idea is that ability is fixed and you can either do maths or you can’t. When children have a growth mindset, they do well with challenges and do better in school overall (Dweck, 2006). When children have a fixed mindset and they encounter difficult work, they often conclude that they haven’t got what it takes to do maths. One way in which parents encourage a fixed mindset is by telling their children they are clever or smart when they do something well. That seems like a nice thing to do, but it sets children up for difficulties later, as when kids fail at something they will inevitably conclude that they aren’t smart after all. There is a pervasive cultural view in England that some kids can do well in maths and some can’t. Parents believe this and some teachers believe it too. This is completely wrong and one of the biggest reasons that maths is a traumatic experience for many children in England.

- See more at: http://yano.co.uk/2012/05/dont-let-maths-muddle-you-2/#sthash.Zst0V6Hu.dpuf

Your support is important and appreciated.  Together we all make a difference.

Click on the posting below to view the fun of our maths week.

Maths Week at HNP

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1YciFD-KowbzqBKx1_NOAlLTIiljlhHvzALEQWb7DHgI/edit#slide=id.g645c38af2_0_148

Maths week was so much fun!