Maths over the holidays

With holidays just around the corner, here are some fun mathematical activities to complete at home to link classroom learning to real life scenarios:

• Adding totals and calculating change at the shops
• Pay with cash and discuss Australian currency
• Tell the time on analogue and digital clocks
• Create a timetable or schedule for your daily activities

You can also play some Mathematical games as a family. 

24 

This game focuses on adding and subtracting. 

Equipment:

• Ace – 10 playing cards

How to play:

• The players use cards Ace – 10.
• Deal out all cards, an equal number to each player.
• The first player turns over a card and places it face up in the centre of the play area. The next player turns over another card and adds it to the card already there. 
• Play continues in this way until someone adds a card that makes 24 or more.
• If the sum is exactly 24 that player wins.
• If the sum is over 24 the value of the card is taken away from the previous total.
• Play continues until someone gets exactly 24.

Up and Down:

This game focuses on ordering numbers (place value). 

Equipment:

• A deck of cards (Aces = 1, Jacks = 11, Queens = 12, Kings = 13)

How to play:

1. Each player is dealt 4 cards face up. The remaining cards are placed in a pack in the middle of the table. 
2. The aim of the game is to be the first player to arrange your cards in either ascending or descending order. The order does not need to be in consecutive order. For example, 1,2,3,4. It could be 1, 3, 4 ,7. 
3. Cards cannot be rearranged, only exchanged. 
4. Starting with the player to the dealer’s left each player may exchange one of their cards from the top of the pack or one from the discard pile. 
5. The first player to arrange their cards in order is the winner of that round. The winner receives 1 point. The first player to reach 5 points is the winner of the game.