Mathematics

Mathletics

Welcome back to another exciting year.

Over the coming days, teachers will be providing students with their username and passwords for Mathletics.

Mathletics is a terrific resource which provides a captivating online learning space to explore Mathematics. In the new edition of Mathletics, students can complete set learning tasks, play mathematical games, revise times tables through music, and explore concepts through Videos and Rainforest Maths. A great resource within Mathletics is ‘Live Mathletics’ which reinforces automatic recall of number facts.

I encourage you to explore the possibilities which Mathletics provides with your child.

Engaging in Maths at home

There are endless possibilities to incorporate Maths into everyday learning and life. Books and stories are full of Maths.

When sharing a story with your child, discuss things like “How many little pigs were there?” “Which house was blown over first?”

Games are a powerful way of learning Maths. Old favourites such as ‘Snakes and Ladders’ and ‘Trouble’ explores how the number system works and practices one-to-one correspondence.

When outdoors - explore maths through walking, talking, looking and listening. Try counting steps, findings numbers and patterns, shapes and mapping your path.

Around the home - experiment with measurement through cooking, reading recipes, and through discovering patterns and shapes. Without even realising, our homes are filled with so many shapes and patterns! Have you noticed the shapes and angles on windows or doors? What about when a door is half opened?

When shopping - mathematical skills can be both simple and complex. For younger students, finding items on the shopping list, reading prices, looking for interesting shapes or numbers or talking about the size and weight of objects can be great mathematical experiences.

With older students, experiences in estimating, using money (budgeting, calculating change and through transactions) is very beneficial.

Remember, errors are a vital part of the learning process, particularly when they inspire children to question “Where did I go wrong? Why? What can I do to fix it?”

Attitude is the key to success - If your child expects to succeed, success will come.

Encourage a positive, have-a-go, you-can-do-it atmosphere towards Maths.