Top 10 Ways to Help Your Kids Do Well in Numeracy!

Mastering MathMastering mathematics is absolutely essential for future opportunities in school and careers. Your children will need to reach a certain level of competency in math to take many advanced high-school courses, to be admitted to college or university, and to have a wide variety of career choices. Here's how you can help them maximize their math-smarts.

1. Make sure your children understand mathematical concepts. Otherwise, math becomes a meaningless mental exercise of just memorizing rules and doing rote drills. Have your children manipulate objects to figure out basic concepts. For addition, they could add one, two, or more blocks to a pile of blocks and then tell you how many blocks are in the pile.

2. Help them master the basic facts. Mastery of a basic fact means that children can give an answer in less than three seconds. Considerable drill is required for children to give quick responses. Use flash cards to help your children learn the basic facts. When they don't know an answer, have them lay out objects to solve the problem.

3. Teach them to write their numbers neatly. Twenty-five percent of all errors in solving math problems can be traced back to sloppy number writing. Improve your children's number-writing skills by having them trace over numbers that you have written. Suggest they use graph paper to keep the numbers in problems neatly aligned.

4. Provide help immediately when your children need it. Math is one subject in which everything builds upon what has been previously learned. For example, a failure to understand the concept of percent leads to problems with decimals.

5. Show them how to handle their math homework. Doing math homework reinforces the skills your children are learning in class. Teach them to begin every assignment by studying the textbook or worksheet examples. Then have them redo the examples before beginning the assignment to make sure they understand the lesson.

6. Encourage your children to do more than the assigned problems. Considerable practice is necessary for your children to hone their math skills. If the teacher only assigns the even problems, having them do some of the odd ones will strengthen their skills. The more time your children spend practicing their skills, the sooner they will develop confidence in their abilities.

7. Explain how to solve word problems. Mathematicians have an expression: To learn to solve problems, you must solve problems. Teach your children to read a word problem several times. Also, have them draw a picture or diagram to describe it. Make it easier for them to understand the steps in a problem by teaching them to substitute smaller numbers for larger ones.

8. Help your children learn the vocabulary of mathematics. They will never get a real feeling for math nor learn more advanced concepts without an understanding of its vocabulary. Check that your children can define new terms. If not, have them use models and simple problems to show you they understand how the term is used.

9.Teach them how to do math "in their head."One of the major ways to solve problems is by using mental math. Kids should use this method frequently instead of using pencil and paper or a calculator. When helping your children with a problem, help them determine when it would be appropriate to use mental math.

10. Make mathematics part of your children's daily life. Mathematics will become more meaningful when your kids see how important it is in so many real-life situations. Encourage them to use math in practical ways. For example, ask them to space new plants a certain distance apart, double a recipe, and pay bills in stores.

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Mathematical Magic Trick

Appropriate for Grades 3 and up (people who know their 2 times tables and 5 times tables)!

Tell your friend to pick their favorite number between 1 and 100, but don't tell you what it is!

Note: If your friends are children, have them pick a number between 1 and 9 so they are able to do the next steps. If you're doing this with mom and dad, you can tease them and make them pick REALLY big numbers so they have to work hard at the math. They'll be very surprised when you come back with the answer so quickly!

Have them multiply their number by 2.

Have them multiply their number by 5.

Have them tell you the answer they've come up with.

Drop the zero from the answer they gave you and tell them what their number was!

Calculator Problems! (3rd Grade Game)

L.O. Use a calculator to solve word problems.

How to play: Work with a partner or in groups of three. Take it in turns to roll the dice.

You start with £1

If you throw:

1 - Double your money
2 - You find 75p behind the settee
3 - You have a hole in your pocket and lose £0.30
4 - It’s your birthday and you get £5
5 - You buy a chocolate bar for 35p
6 - The tooth fairy leaves you £2.50

How to record your answers:
I have £1.
I found 75p behind the settee.

Calculation: 1.00 + 0.75 = 1.75
Answer: £1.75

If you have no money left, you are out.
The winner is the first person to get £10.00 or more.

Check each other’s calculations throughout!

Mastering Second Grade Numeracy

Most second graders aren't begging their parents to let them do more Numeracy work at home. However, it's very important that your child continues to learn outside of school walls. Numeracy lessons are often introduced in rapid succession, and she will absorb the concepts more thoroughly if she practices multiple times in different situations. Plus, practicing Numeracy at home presents the perfect opportunity to review classroom concepts, and to make Numeracy fun! Encourage Numeracy at home with some of the following activities:

- Give your child play money and other props to create a pretend store, restaurant, or yard sale. Help her use sticky notes for price tags, make construction paper menus, and write "receipts" on index cards.

- There's no need to reinvent the wheel. The best way to practice addition and subtraction is to write problems for your child to solve. Make it more fun by using special paper and pencils (i.e. those Spiderman pencils he begged for). Create timed tests and encourage him to beat his own best score or best time. Provide cumulative rewards, such as a chart with a sticker for each math practice test he completes; after collecting a designated number of stickers, he earns a prize (activity based rewards work best, so try renting a movie, going skating, or inviting a friend for a sleepover instead of offering extra dessert or allowance money).

- To practice measurement, create challenges. For example, ask your child to find three things that are longer than fourteen centimetres and shorter than twenty centimetres. After she gathers the items and brings them back to you, have her write down the items and the length of each.

- At this age, children can become increasingly involved with helping to follow recipes, a prime opportunity to use volume measurements such as cups, teaspoons, etc. They'll also see fractions in action, and gain experience converting units such as ounces and quarts.

- Hang a thermometer outside your child's window. Help him read the temperature often.

- To practice geometric recognition, ask your budding artist to create pictures using combinations of the following shapes: circle, quadrilateral, rhombus, square, triangle, hexagon, etc. For example, ask her to make a picture using two triangles and three squares. The shapes can either be drawn into the picture or they can be cut from construction paper, glued on the page, then coloured around.

- To practice telling time, assign the task of “timekeeper” to your child. Tell him it's his job to alert you when it's 6:15p.m. and time for dinner or 10:30a.m. and time to leave for soccer.

- Create word problems using activities or characters your child enjoys. For example, a football fan will enjoy a word problem involving field goals.

If possible, try to coordinate the opportunities for practice at home with the skills recently addressed at school. If your child seems to be struggling with a particular concept, continue to explore it as often as possible until you feel he's reached complete understanding.

Guess the Groceries - Game for 4th Graders!

Most kids don’t think of grocery shopping as an exciting way to spend the afternoon. But when grocery shopping involves a game and possible prizes, you just might have your child begging to go with you! Not only is this a fun diversion from worksheets (and a chance for you to get some shopping done), but it's also a great chance to practice rounding, estimation and addition with a hands-on method--one of the very best ways to make sense of math.

What You Need:
Grocery list
Pencil
Calculator (optional)

What to Do:
Write your weekly grocery list, leaving space next to each item for a dollar amount to be written. Ask your child to look over the list, think about what each item probably costs, and “guess” a total price for all of the groceries.

Head to the grocery store with your child. On the way, explain that she will be rounding, adding and estimating the total cost of the groceries as you shop. Surprise her by telling her that she will get a prize if her estimate comes within $10.00 of the actual total.
As you begin shopping, hand over the shopping list to your child. Every time an item goes into the cart, she should write the actual price and then round it to the nearest dollar (e.g. peas: $2.89 = $3.00). When you finish shopping, ask your fourth-grader to add up her list of rounded amounts and get an estimated total (bring a calculator or help her do mental math). Compare her estimated total with her “guess” from home.

After checking out and paying for your groceries, give the receipt to your child and have her compare her estimated total with the actual total. If she is within $10.00, offer her a small prize. If she doesn’t “win”, offer a “participation prize” to keep her motivated.

Follow-up questions for the ride home are a great way to focus in on what was learned. Try these: What items were least/most expensive? What patterns do you see in pricing? What types of food are more expensive? How can rounding and estimating help you as a shopper?
If it's difficult to schedule a joint trip to the grocery store, try occasionally bringing home your grocery receipt. Cut off the bottom sales total, then give the top portion to your child and ask her to round each item and estimate the total. Compare to see how close she came to the actual total. You can offer a small reward, or just simply praise her for a job well done – the best reward of all!

Estimating the grocery bill could even become your fourth-grader’s new job and a way to earn a small allowance. Your child will enjoy the small rewards for completing an "adult" job, and she will look forward to her weekly challenge of guessing the groceries!

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Thinking skills - 10 min exercises!

How many triangles can you see in this picture?


A train which Is 200m long enters a 1 km long tunnel.
If the train is travelling 100 metres per second how long before the end of the train leaves the tunnel?


There are some goats and ducks around a pond. They have 40 heads and 88 feet between them. How many goats are there? How many ducks are there?


The security door at the football college has a door code of 1966.
The door can, in fact be opened by any combination of these numbers (e.g. 6196). How many different combinations are there to open the door?


In an Indian restaurant 2 samosas and 3 pakoras cost £3.10, but 3 samosas and 2 pakoras cost £2.90. How much is one pakora?


Five people share a tent for a holiday for 5 nights. They all agree to say goodnight to everyone else in the tent every night. How many times is the word goodnight spoken throughout the holiday?

New Number Challenges

For many students, 5th grade is the last year of Primary before entering Secondary. Accordingly, the intensity of math instruction moves up a notch as 10 year olds delve into increasingly high-level math concepts.

•High-Tech Helpers
Tools such as calculators and computers may begin to play a role in your child’s Numeracy class. Although calculators shouldn’t be used to make basic calculations — 5th graders still need practice with that — they can be useful for learning about numbers and operations and seeing how patterns develop. Calculators can also be instructive when tackling especially difficult problems; students can talk about the issues they would need to consider even if the numbers get very large.

•Homework and Testing
With the increased workload, in Numeracy as well as other 5th grade subjects, students may need to refine their study habits. Nightly Numeracy homework reinforces the lessons of the day.

Most 5th graders also take standardized Numeracy tests. These tests generally include multiple-choice as well as open-ended problems. The purpose of the exam is to make sure students meet the school´s criteria for proficiency in their knowledge of the school´s Numeracy curriculum. The push for testing comes out of a growing belief among educators that math prowess is vital not only for our individual children’s success in life, but for our country’s future.

For more information:

http://www.scholastic.com/resources/article/new-number-challenges/