Melton West Primary School

Numeracy Report 


Exploring Numeracy

 

YEAR 3 TO YEAR 6

 

Exploring sports

Sports provide a good opportunity to engage your child in maths, particularly if they are a keen sportsperson.

Here are some questions to ask your child when watching or playing their favourite sport:

  • How does your favourite sport tally the score? What maths is presented on the tally?
  • How do other sports tally the score – for example, tennis, golf, cricket, netball, football?
  • What maths do you use to find the total of the scores?
  • Who is at the top of the ladder? How is this determined?
  • Are there other ways to record the score?
  • How long do your favourite sport games go for in minutes and seconds? How is the time in the game divided Into halves, quarters or something else?
  • What are the shapes of different playing fields and courts? Talk about edges and angles.
  • How can you estimate the perimeter and area of a playing field?
  • How many cars could be parked on the MCG field? How could we work this out?

Browsing catalogues

Discussing catalogues can be a great way to improve your child’s maths knowledge of money and percentages.

Here are some questions you could ask:

  • How would you spend $40 from a catalogue? How many products can you buy for $40?
  • Select five products from the catalogue, then calculate what the cost would be if there was a 50% sale. Does it make a difference if you add up the items, and then deduct 50%, or if each item is reduced by 50% then totaled?
  • What is the best value sale item in the catalogue? Can you explain your reasoning?
  • Compare the cost of a product across different stores using different catalogues. What did you find?

Travel timetables

Here are some questions to ask your child that improve their knowledge of time and their problem solving skills:

  • Can you identify your starting point on the timetable?
  • What is the earliest and latest time to travel on this route?
  • How long does it take to travel the entire route?
  • How many stops are there on this route?
  • What is the difference in the time travelled when not making all the stops?
  • What is the cost? Is it good value compared to other travel options?
  • Which is the best route to travel? Why do you think this?
  • To get to training on time, when will you need to leave?

Connecting online

Here are some other useful websites you can access from home or the local library. Some are also available to download as apps on various devices:

» https://fuse.education.vic.gov.au (select Primary Students tab)

» https://education.abc.net.au

» https://www.wolframalpha.com/ (start with the Elementary Maths link) 

 

» http://www.ictgames.com/resources.html

» https://www.scratchjr.org/

» https://www.kodable.com/parents 

 

Kind Regards, 

Klaudia Jellis

Leader of Mathematics