Useful stuff
Number lines
Number lines help pupils understand negative number... that numbers can be positive and negative or zero. Negative numbers are smaller than positive numbers.
Many children find it difficult to understand that, say, -500 is smaller than -1. After all, the figures 500 look far bigger than 1.
In history lessons many also find it difficult to undertstand that 1500BC is more than 2,500 years older than 1066. Once you get back to BC, the numbers appear to get bigger and bigger. Mathematically they are getting smaller... or, in the case of history, they are getting older and older.
This number line is aimed particularly at year 7 pupils, but pupils well beyond this age can find working with negative numbers difficult.
Pupils should use the line to count between, say, -5 and +15.... the answer is 20. Pupils should be encouraged to draw leaps on the line.
Remember... a minus plus a minus is a minus. -5 + (-6) = -5 -6 = -11
And... a minus minus a minus is a plus. -5 - (-6) = -5 +6 = +1
Changing the terminology can help avoid some of the confusion you get when you call a negative number a "minus" number, and the operation of subtraction also "minus":
So, a negative plus a negative is a negative.
And, a negative subtract a negative is a positive.
Long multiplication
Multiplying numbers together can present problems for some pupils.
Most parents will have learned the "old-fashioned" way. Today it's not considered to be the easiest way.
There are well over 20 methods, two of which many children find easier than the old-fashioned way — one uses boxes and the other uses boxes and diagonals and is sometimes known as the Hindu grid, the Arabian grid, Italian gelosia or the Chinese cell.
There is also a fourth way which is suitable for some children — the ancient Egyptian way of multiplication, which relies totally on being only able to multiply by two and add.
All four methods are outlined in two posters, one showing how to multiply big numbers of two digits, such as 34 x 28, and a second poster showing how to multiply really big numbers, such as 346 x 289.
Children can often find multiplication daunting, but armed with a number of strategies they can find the one most suited to their own talents... and gain more confidence with numbers.
A table listing metric measures and how to convert, say, from millimetres to centimetres.
Comprehensive listings of units and conversion factors courtesy of the Centre for Innovation in Maths Teaching.
Various dotty grids, lined grids and grids with co-ordinates in different sizes, courtesy of the Centre for Innovation in Maths Teaching at Exeter University.
Dotty grids are often used for maths investigations, where pupils are encouraged to develop maths solutions based on experimentation.
and co-ordinate grids
Some mathematical games and things to make courtesy of the Centre for Innovation in Maths Teaching at Exeter University.
Go back to the topTable of metric measures
Dictionary of units
Grids
Things to make