Maths: Tips for Parents

Kindergarten - Topic: Volume - Week 4-5

Just by comparing items around the home, your child can begin to understand some basic principles of measurement:

• Sometimes, we can estimate an amount. We don’t always need an exact measure.

• The same object can be measured in different ways.

• A measuring tool needs to be used the same way each time.

Children need to play with a variety of materials and containers for filling, packing and pouring before they can move to using formal units such as kilograms and grams. They need to understand how things can be packed together to fill a container and which materials are better for packing.

Year 1 and 2 - Topic: Inverse Operations - Week 4-5

Fact Families and Addition & Subtraction Facts

Recently your child has been learning about Fact Families. What is a fact family? Fact families are usually represented in the form of a triangle, as shown in the below image. The three numbers forming the fact family are written in the three corners (near the vertices) of the triangle.

The operation’s sign connecting the three numbers is usually written in the middle. For the addition fact family, the sum of the numbers is usually written at the top vertex, and the numbers being added are written at the vertices at the bottom.

Take a look at the fact family triangle with fact family numbers 2, 5, 7.

Fact families are vital to understanding complex math operations. 

One of the reasons fact families are so important is because they help children learn their addition and subtraction facts. When children first learn these facts, it can be difficult to keep track of all the combinations. However, by grouping them into fact families, children can more easily see the relationships between the different facts. 

A fact family is made up of three numbers and can be made up of at least four math facts. For example, if a child knows that 3 + 4 = 7 then they can also deduce that 4 + 3 = 7 and 7 – 4 = 3 and 7 – 3 = 4. 

You can see that each number bond fact is related to two other facts in the family. In other words, they share two of the same numbers. 

Subtraction can be especially difficult for some students than addition, but fact families can often help. Overall, fact families can be a helpful way for children to remember their facts, especially in the early stages of learning them.

Year 3 and 4 - Topic: Money - Week 5-6

Finding Maths at the Shops 1 page pdf (Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute)

Teaching kids about money 

Topics:

• Talk to your kids about money
• Show your kids where money goes
• Get kids involved in money decisions
• Give kids pocket money
• Encourage your kids to save

Page reading time:3 minutes (moneysmart.gov.au)

Year 5 and 6 - Topic: Multiplicative Relations - Week 5-6

• Use Real-Life Scenarios: Encourage your child to apply the order of operations in everyday situations. For example, if they are helping with shopping, ask them to calculate the total cost of items where they need to multiply quantities and add prices (e.g., 2 bags of apples at $3 each + 4 bananas at $1 each). This helps them see how the order in which they perform calculations affects the outcome.
• Play Number Sentence Games: Create simple number sentences that include multiple operations and ask your child to solve them. For example, 3 + 2 × 5. First, solve it without brackets, then add brackets 3 + (2 × 5) to demonstrate how grouping symbols change the result. This will help your child see why it's important to agree on an order of operations.