Curriculum News

Mathematics

This term during professional learning, the teachers have worked collaboratively to explore further the NSW Mathematics Syllabus Outcomes and Learning Content to design learning that meets the needs of all our students. These sessions have also focused on how we can provide tasks that provide depth for those students who require differentiation for the current learning focus.

Mathematics Matters

The teachers at St Aidan's understand that Mathematics establishes the groundwork for problem-solving, logical thinking, and practical applications. We are guided by the following principles:

1. Mathematics is the Building Blocks for the Future:

Strong foundation: Early math skills, including number sense and basic operations, are the building blocks for more advanced mathematical concepts learned later in school. 

2. Cognitive Development in Mathematics:

Critical thinking and problem-solving: Engaging with math activities helps children develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and logical reasoning skills, which are valuable in all areas of life. 

Cognitive flexibility: Mathematics encourages flexible thinking and creativity as students learn to approach problems from different angles and adapt their strategies. 

3. Mathematics provides Essential Life Skills:

Everyday applications: Maths is fundamental to everyday life, from counting money and measuring ingredients to telling time and understanding shapes. 

Financial literacy: Understanding basic maths concepts is crucial for managing finances and making informed decisions about money. 

Confidence and self-esteem: Success in math can boost a child's confidence and self-esteem, encouraging a positive attitude towards learning. 

4. Fostering Curiosity and Exploration in Mathematics:

Encouraging inquiry: Math encourages children to ask questions, seek patterns, and find solutions, fostering a sense of curiosity and a love for learning. 

Real-world connections: Math helps children make connections between abstract concepts and real-world situations, making learning more relevant and engaging. 

Exploring maths together at home

Supporting your child in developing their maths skills doesn’t have to mean complicated fractions or expert knowledge! Applying numeracy skills to real life situations is really important. You might want to try:

Maths at meal times

Meal times offer numerous opportunities for practicing math. Engaging in activities like food preparation, cooking, and serving allows children to develop skills in counting, measuring, and understanding ratios.

Younger children can be motivated to set the table for the appropriate number of guests, asking them to gather the correct quantity of items such as plates, glasses, and utensils. Older children might calculate how long it will take to prepare dinner, adjust a recipe for a larger group, or measure ingredients accurately.

Talk about the weather

Discussing the weather is an excellent way to bring math into practical situations. Consider watching and talking about weather reports together to explore how mathematics can explain the world around us.

Your child might enjoy creating a weather log. Younger children may prefer to note each day as sunny, cloudy, rainy, etc. As the log develops, you can prompt them to discuss the total number of sunny days recorded or how many more sunny days there have been compared to rainy days over the past few weeks.

Older children can track temperatures, investigate which locations are the warmest or the coldest, or figure out how many degrees warmer or colder one city is in comparison to another. What conclusions can they make based on their data? Are there any interesting trends they can identify? 

On a walk

When going for a walk, encourage young children to watch for and tally the number of birds or cars they see. For older children, they can consider and predict how many steps the walk will involve, the distance you’ll cover, and the time needed to complete it. Many smartphones can track this type of information for you, allowing you to verify how precise their estimates were!

Playing sports

For young children, try tossing a ball in the yard and keep track of how many times you can pass it before it falls. Can you improve your previous score?

Encourage older children to perform a specific number of actions within a minute—like counting how many star jumps they can do—and log their scores over multiple rounds. Then, they can analyse the data to determine which round was their best. 

Story time!

To incorporate Mathematics into story time, use positional language while exploring picture books, posing questions such as ‘What is located behind the boy?’ and ‘What do you see beneath the table?’. This activity can assist young children in understanding space, shapes, and positioning.

Another idea is to count and identify numbers in your child’s favorite storybooks. For instance, ask questions like, ‘How many biscuits are visible?’ or ‘How many times did the dog bark?’ Encourage older children to check how many pages a chapter or book contains. How long will it take them to complete it if they read five pages each day?

By encouraging a passion for Mathematics at home, parents can help their children in acquiring skills that will serve them throughout their lives. Let's turn Mathematics into an exciting journey!

With you in Faith and Education,

Mrs Kim O'Kane

Instructional Specialist