Maths in Class 1
Here are a few ideas to reinforce your child’s maths learning at home. A few questions on one of the following topics a few times a week is all that’s needed – perhaps while you’re driving along in the car, or cooking tea – I’m not suggesting long pencil and paper sessions! You will also find links to maths apps and songs we use in class on the class blog.
One of our recurring topics is one more than, one less than. We encourage the children to think of the 100 square. They then look for the number one back, or one forwards. Alternatively, they may count backwards or forwards.
Once they are confident with this, we move on to 10 more than, and 10 less than. We encourage the children to find the pattern of looking above or below the number to find 10 more or less than their starting number.
We also do lots of work on number bonds. The children are challenged to find as many ways as they can to make 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10.
Two common things they forget are – to reverse ways (eg 3+2=5, so another way is 2+3=5) and to include 0 (eg 5+0=5, and 0+5=5)
Another topic we work on is money. A lot of children get muddled about which coins actually exist – they will suggest using a 7p coin for example. So appropriate questions would be along the lines of ‘How much is 5p and 3p? What coins could you use to make that?’
‘One apple is 5p. How much for 2 apples? What coins could you give the shopkeeper?’
‘I buy a banana costing 7p. I pay with a 10p coin. How much change will I get? What coins might my change be?’