Nokuna

Curriculum Corner

Numeracy @ Home (Yr 3-6 focus...Part 2)

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 totalled?
  • 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?

Handling money

Encouraging your child to think about money, saving money, and considering how they spend money is very important.

Here are some tips and activities:

  • Encourage your child to work out how much change you will get after buying something.
  • Investigate costs for family trips together. For example, a visit to a theme park may include the cost of transport, entry tickets, food and transport.
  • Discuss saving money for presents or something your child may want to buy. Work out how long it will take to save this much if they get a small amount of money each week.
  • Negotiate increases in pocket money as percentages. For example, a 5% increase would be how much money per week? Is this better than a monthly increase?
  • Encourage your child to save a percentage of their pocket money or birthday money and work out how much this would be. For example, how much money would you have if you saved 40% each week?
  • Calculate together how much a mobile phone costs per month. What percentage of total cost is spent on messages and what percentage on phone calls?
  • Read the newspaper or watch the news. Discuss what is happening with the stock market and why these changes may occur.

Understanding fractions

Fractions is a Mathematics topic that is very relevant to everyday life. We use our knowledge of fractions to solve problems and make decisions all the time.  Support your child by using mathematical language to talk about fractions.

 

Here are some maths language terms your child uses at school:

Fraction – any part of a whole, a group or a number (for example, ⅜ )

Numerator – showing the number of parts of the whole (for example, in the fraction ⅜ , the numerator is 3)

Denominator – shows how many equal parts the whole is divided into (for example, in the fraction ⅜ , the denominator is 8)

Proper fraction – when the value of the numerator is less than the denominator (for example, ⅜ )

Improper fraction – when the numerator is greater than or equal to the denominator (for example, 5/3)

Equivalent fraction – fractions that have the same value or amount (for example, 2/3 = 4/6)

Mixed numbers – a whole number and a fraction (for example, 1 ½)

Children begin by learning that there are many numbers between whole numbers. A number line is an effective model to help your child understand this:

0-------------⅜ -------------⅝-------------1

 

Your child also begins to develop an understanding of the relationship between fractions, decimals, ratios and percentage.

Decimals – a fraction that is made by dividing a whole into ten equal parts (tenths) or one hundred equal parts (hundredths). For example, 75 red pens of 100 total pens can be rewritten as 0.75 or .75

Ratio – a comparison of two or more amounts. For example, in a fruit bowl there are 3 apples and 4 pears. This ratio of apples to pears is represented as 3:4.

Percentage – is the number of parts out of 100. For example, in a collection of 100 buttons, 75 are red. This can be represented as 75 per cent or 75%.

 

Talk positively about how you use fractions in everyday life. Making models of fractions for your child will support their understanding of fractions.

Try some of these ideas by making use of everyday objects:

  • Can you show me halves and quarters as you cut the orange?
  • Can you cut up the apple to make six equal pieces? What fraction of the whole apple is one piece? Four pieces?
  • How else could you say that?
  • What percentage of the glass is filled with water? What is the ratio of water to air in the glass?
  • How do the hands on the clock face show the time quarter past? Why do we use the word ‘quarter’ when telling the time?
  • If you fold a towel three times equally, what fraction does it show?

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: