Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Some good places for useful math at primary level

www.mathplayground.com

this website has a section labelled videos and another labelled worksheets. Both of these sections are superb and well worth the exploration. Subjects to explore would be as follows;
• fractions
• decimals
• percentages
• money
• ratio and proportion (video 1 only)
The worksheets are split into grades, and for our age group we want the one at the bottom, called grade 3, 4, and 5. I would suggest you use the ones where you have to ‘fill in’ as these ones will be marked for you. Do the ones labelled #1 first and then move onto #2. They are excellent as a reminder for those who can already do the sums and as a teaching aid for those who are unsure. Supporting videos are available and do show excellent methods which are acceptable in this country.

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/revision_aid_download.php

This is a superb website and has lots of practice for those who are sitting the 11+. I have used a great deal of their stuff over the years and use their computer based programmes in the lessons. The work now produced by a section called Chukka is excellent and I would suggest the ‘once a day’ worksheet. It takes about 5 mins and is a good way of upping the speed of the basic Numeracy.

http://www.coolmath4kids.com/

you want a place where the children love to go and play the games and yet learn at the same time? Then this is it! All of the activities have some mathematical base to them, even the jigsaws I promise you. If you are a parent of an 11 plus candidate then this is certainly the place to rest and play. The games cover all aspects of math including spacial awareness. Warning! some of the games are compulsive, especially things like Bloxorz or Orb2.
There is a very good section on basic arithmetic and some games which compliment it. Have a good look yourself before you ;let your child loose; it maybe the last time you get a chance to get on it yourself!!
Teat the jigsaws as a way of developing the spacial awareness needed in the non-verbal reasoning paper. It helps them recognise shapes, spot connections, understand how colours will flow so it also works to help develop processing skills.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

an excellent web site

How many of you parents have found this web site www.miniclip.com/games? It is really good and has a large number of puzzles which will keep most of the family occupied for hours. I would recommend Block Drop and Red Remover as 2 games which support math learning for year 5 and 6 pupils but that doesn't mean it isn't fun for the adults too. I ended up cracking them both, but it took me 'til 1am!