Maths

Dear Parents and Carers, 

Here are some more fun ways you can help your child to develop their Mathematical skills and thinking. (Grades 3-6)

Watching the weather

Because it changes daily, the weather can be a great topic to discuss maths with your child. 

Try these activities: 

• Visit the website http://www.bom.gov.au/vic/ 
• Ask your child the difference between each day’s minimum and maximum temperatures. Do they notice a pattern or trend in the weather changes? 
• Find a seven-day forecast, then record the actual temperature for each day and compare. Ask your child if the forecast was accurate.  Ask them what similarities and differences they notice.
• Use the information on the weather website to explore differences in weather between your area and other areas. Ask your child how much rain you get compared to other areas. Ask your child to identify differences in temperature between your area and other areas. Who might be affected by an increase or decrease in rainfall?

Browsing catalogues 

Discussing catalogues can be a great way to improve your child’s maths knowledge of money and percentages. And coming up to Christmas there are lots of catalogues.

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?             

(Taken from Department of Education - LITERACY AND NUMERACY TIPS TO HELP YOUR CHILD EVERY DAY A GUIDE FOR PARENTS OF CHILDREN AGED 0-12)

Kind regards 

Jennifer O’Connor

Assistant Principal Prep-2 Learning Community