Counting down to Christmas ...and 2015

Ganges class were counting down for all of the fifteen days they were at school in December. It made us think creatively so we could get through the thirty one windows on our Advent calendar. The best thing was no one knew where their Christmas picture was so the excitement of when each of us was going to get a Christmas chocolate kept on going throughout the festive season! We had two special days when the person who opened the 'window' opened it up to find their own picture behind. They naturally had an extra chocolate to celebrate such an amazing event.

Time reflections

New learning

Maths lessons are busy and varied with all kinds of maths to work on so it is good to stop, think and reflect on our learning. After our work on time we have all taken a few moments to think about what new learning we have developed during our time with time. Here are a selection of our thoughts.

Hickory Dickory Dock, The mouse ran up the clock ...

If the red hand is on the ten and ...

A very useful life skill is being able to tell the time. This last week in class we have been working on a wide range of activities to help us understand time. We thought of all sorts of examples of when we need to tell the time in everyday life such as being at school on time, having lunch, getting the bus and going to the cinema. All of these events rely on good time keeping. Estimating the passage of time is really quite tricky but some of us were brilliant at estimating the passage of one minute.

Estimating one minute - Brilliant!

If there are 60 seconds in one minute then ...

As we have developed our understanding we have been working out time durations between two different times. Later in the week we used our knowledge to convert seconds, minutes, hours and days. Did you know that there are 3,600 seconds in one hour? You work that out by doing 60 x 60. We don't do our 60 times table in class but we do know that 6 x 6 = 36 so 60 x 60 = 3,600 seconds. That's why we keep practising our key times table knowledge as it helps us in so many areas of maths. Well, time is getting on ...

Rounding with Tarsia

Off we go

Continuing with our work on rounding we have been doing a variety of different things to check our learning this week. Some of us were working on Mathletics rounding activities on the computers, others were generating their own numbers to put in an everyday context and then present them in a variety of ways. A couple of groups used sets of Tarsia cards to round two, three and four digit numbers. Once again, working together has helped us check our understanding of how to round up or down for tens, hundreds and thousands.

Almost there

Success!

Round, round and round we go.

Coming up with estimates in maths is often a good idea and this week we have been working on rounding a variety of different numbers. We know that for 1,2,3 and 4, you round down and for 5,6,7,8 and 9, you round up. Some of us have been finding numbers used in the children's newspaper First News. We then rounded them to the nearest ten, hundred or thousand. We have been thinking of the different situations in everyday life when being able to round numbers would be useful. Pocket money time could be the perfect time to demonstrate our knowledge!

Rounding up and rounding down

Numbers are everywhere in newspapers

Investigating symmetry in triangles

Lines of symmetry in an equilateral triangle

Continuing our thinking on symmetry we have been investigating the lines of symmetry in triangles. Using georods to make different triangles we discovered that an equilateral triangle has three lines of symmetry. We then moved on to examine isosceles, right angled triangles and scalene triangles. We found out that the scalene triangle does not have any lines of symmetry, poor thing!

Checking our thinking

Isosceles symmetry

We know the name of these triangles. Do you?

Designing symmetrical patterns

Team work

The second part of the autumn term sees us working on another area of geometry in maths. We began the week by investigating how to make symmetrical patterns. Using our numicon resources some of us designed patterns with horizontal symmetry, some with vertical symmetry and some even had diagonal symmetry. Working with partners helped us to understand that, 'an object is symmetrical when one half is a mirror image of the other half'.

Vertical symmetry with the full board covered

Looking pleased with our symmetrical pattern

Sorting shapes and making shapes from shapes

Sorting shapes in a Venn diagram

Building on from our work with triangles we have been thinking about quadrilaterals. Did you know that a quadrilateral is 'a polygon with four sides and four vertices or corners'. We had to think carefully about triangles and quadrilaterals when we were sorting their different properties. We are all able to remember the isosceles triangle, two equal sides and two equal angles, really well now after one of us called it an isausageles! We all laughed at that and it has helped us to remember it. It just sounds so tasty.

Combining triangles

We have also been using equilateral triangles, three equal sides with three equal angles of 60 degrees, to make a range of different shapes. It was quite a challenge and as Dr. Suess says, "We puzzled and puzzled until our puzzler was sore." Working with a partner helped us to solve the tricky problems we were given.

This one really got us thinking!

Investigating Triangles

Which type of triangles can you see here?

In maths we need to cover a wide range of subject areas and this week we have started to work on geometry. Just in case you didn't know, geometry is, 'the area of maths dealing with solids, surfaces, points, lines, curves and angles, and their relationships in space'.
In class we have been using practical resources to help us think about the different types of triangles and which particular things make them different. We used a great deal of mathematical language when talking about right-angled triangles, equilateral triangles as well as scalene triangles. 

Geo boards work well for making triangles.

What can you say about the properties of these triangles?

Counting in multiples of 10.

Continued good autumn weather has given us more opportunities to get outside for maths. Just the other day some of us were outside working on sequencing multiples of ten. We worked with a partner to develop number walls with sequences increasing by 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80. It gave our friends playing football at lunchtime something  to think about too!

From the start ...

...to the finish we had to think carefully.

Almost at a four digit number.

Working together helps us learn and is fun.

Thinking about our learning.

As we progress through the different areas of maths we are bringing a positive approach to our learning along with taking the time to stop and think. After working on four digit numbers we all took a moment to note down what we have learnt about numbers involving thousands.

Reflecting on four digit numbers.

Putting numbers in their place.

When you are still one or two years off turning into a two digit number yourself, thinking about numbers with four digits can sometimes be tricky. But that is what we turned our minds to in the second half of this week, THTU or Thousands, Hundreds, Tens and Units. Some of us had to work in teams in class to make massive long number lines going from 0 to 1000. Each group had to use a different scale for their number line and we needed to sort ourselves out so we didn't all just start at zero and make the same section. Another group were outside again collecting different things from the playground which we then had to put in the correct place on our super long number line when we took it outside. We all hope the good weather stays so we can keep enjoying getting outside for maths.

Preparing one of our number lines.

Going up in units of 25 to 1000.

   

How long?

How many? So where does that go on a 1000 number line?

Our lovely grounds are a great resource for our maths, science and literacy lessons.

We have the CAPACITY for learning!

Two heads are better than one.

We started the week thinking about adding and subtracting to 1000 in maths as we carried out some investigations into capacity and mass. The sun was shining for us when we, firstly had to think about how much more water was needed to top up the 1 litre bottles and then we carefully measured the exact amount to top them up. The hardest part was carefully looking at the marks on the side of the measuring containers as some of them increased by 25 ml, ml means millilitres, some by 50 ml and some by 100 ml. You really have to look super close and keep the water level steady to be exact. Doing maths outside helps us remember that you can do maths everywhere.

Helping each other helps us to learn.

We look so pleased as our estimate of 350 ml was exactly correct!

How many ways to make ...?

Along with using Numicon we have also been using number rods to explore the many different ways that we can combine numbers to make another number. The number rods are great for this type of work as we can actually see if our initial ideas are working out. Just look at how many different ways we came up with for a total of 12. Some of us needed lots of rods when we were working on making a total of 20. The colourful rods certainly brighten up our learning in class. The tricky part is fitting them all back in the box at the end of the lesson!

Keeping an eye on 1 to 10.

20 different ways to make 12.

Checking our work is always a good idea.

So if 10+10=20, then ...

Ganges Class Maths Blog is OPEN!

New Numicon Arrives.

With the start of the new term everyone in Ganges class is using the new supply of Numicon resources we have just received in class. Practically showing our understanding is a great way to help us in our learning. Numicon is colourful, bright, tactile and can be used for all four operators - add, subtract, multiply and divide. Just look at the many different ways we can use number bonds to make 10. Perfect!

Different ways to make 10.

Different ways to make 8

Working together helps us learn.

Sometimes we run out of desk!