Athletic Maths and Measuring

Checking a measurement

Doing maths outside is something that everyone in Ganges class enjoys and with a focus on measuring this March a series of athletic based events provided the perfect opportunity to get out and get active.

However, before a single bean bag, javelin or football was measured we had to get our maths heads on and estimate how far they had gone (an estimate is a thoughtful guess).

We had the option of using a range of different measuring equipment outside from metre rulers to tape measures and trundle wheels. The important thing you need top remember when using a trundle wheel is to make sure you start off with it at zero otherwise you will get an incorrect measurement.

100 metres in 9.63 seconds -WOW!

Everyone enjoyed learning about measuring in the sunshine and some of us were very good at estimating. We finished off by trying to correctly estimate 50 metres across the playground. That is half the distance Usain Bolt runs as his main event is the 100 metre race. We all agreed that running that far in 9.63 seconds at the 2012 Olympic final in London is just amazing.

Red Nose Day Maths

Making equivalent calculations

Answering questions in class on Red Nose Day proved to be rather challenging and rather funny at the same time. Why? Well have you ever tried to explain how one side of a calculation is equivalent to the other side with a large red plastic nose attached to your actual nose! Oh, along with showing the calculation with Cuisinaire rods too.

It made us laugh but we kept on working through the laughter.

Cyclops maths

A puzzled looking red nose

Using base ten resources for decimal numbers.

How to show 3 and 3 tenths as a decimal with base ten resources

We are always using practical resources in class as by seeing and touching our maths equipment it helps us to understand the mathematical ideas. When we were thinking about decimal numbers and how they link in with fractions we found it very useful to place the base ten resources on a place value grid. It meant we were able to see the digits and how they related to the units and the tenths.
Putting the decimal point in the correct place is very important as 3.3 can soon become 33 or even 0.33 if you are not careful.

Showing 3 and 6 tenths as a decimal with base ten resources

Full minds and empty boxes

Two minds are better than one

Sometimes working out calculations when you are given all of the information you need can be tricky. So imagine how challenged the children of Ganges class are when they are given just part of the details and a series of 'empty boxes'. 
The empty boxes can be all types of different shapes to really make us think hard! We worked in pairs for some questions where we had to set questions for each other so you can imagine how we were wanting to make them as tricky as possible.

Can you think of any other ways these could be solved?

If you begin with the answer there are a number of different possible answers which means that we really have to apply the work we have been doing in class. Puzzling out a number of options helps to develop our ability to mentally manipulate numbers.