A couple of free maths worksheets for very simple addition sums here. Aimed at young children who have learnt to count to ten and can begin to add two single digits without the help of a number line. If they find these hard don’t be afraid to use a number line to help.

Free maths worksheet: adding 3 to a single digit

Free maths worksheets: adding 4 to a single digit (pg 1)

Free maths worksheets: adding 4 to a single digit (pg 2)

Well, the metric system has been with us for a long time but there are still many children who use Imperial units when talking, often not knowing very much about them. Schools teach the metric system: society seems to want to keep the old fashioned system and it is our children who suffer.

Metric is far easier and this worksheet reminds children of the main units:

1 km = 1000 m

1 m = 100 cm

1 cm = 10 mm

1 kg = 1000 g

1 litre = 1000 ml

It is also worth reminding ourselves that a litre of water has a mass (weighs) one kilo and fits exactly into a 10 cm cube!

Rant over - try the worksheet.

Free Y4 maths worksheet: using standard metric units

Here is a nice little page from the forthcoming URBrainy website (not yet online). It looks at a key phrase which young children need to understand, “How many are left?”

It also relates the term “How many are left?” to the subtraction sum and the subtraction sign.

Children find subtraction far harder than addition and many are not familiar with phrases such as these and don’t know what they mean.

Free reception maths worksheet: how many more?

Children always seem very reluctant to check the answers to calculations that they have made. This sometimes results in bizarre answers, often when using a calculator.

Here is a simple subtraction worksheet but it also asks for each subtraction to be checked by carrying an addition.

For example: 40 - 17 = 23 can be checked by adding 17 and 23 which equals 40.

The most comon error that children make with this is to say that 40 -17 = 33.

Free Y4 maths worksheet: checking answers to subtraction

The teachers’ union, unison, has highlighted a problem whereby more and more teaching assistants are being asked to cover teacher absence and take full classes for maths and literacy lessons.

Whist GCSE Maths might be a qualification it has little to do with understanding how young children learn and the best approaches to take to help them. Unfortunately, most people put into a stressful situation that they are not trained for will revert back to the way they were taught themselves - not always a good thing.

Interestingly in the last ten years the number of teachers has risen by 10% whereas the number of teaching assistants has risen by 200%.

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There is to be a greater emphasis on maths in England’s nursery schools. More help for children struggling and parents to be given more support. The idea is to combat the negative culture in this country towards maths – it is socially fashionable to claim that “I am no good at maths!”

Of course this will cost and there is a presumption that there are many maths specialists out there who are keen to take part - at a cost of £187 million. No bad thing, I think.
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Two by Two by Barbara Reid
This book is a real must for any parent who loves sitting down and looking at books with their young children. Written in rhymes to tell the story of Noah’s Ark you will find your child returning again and again to their favourite pages.
One of the best aspects of the book is the amazing 3-D sculptured animals, but the book can be enjoyed in a number of ways. The rhymes can be read or sung and children can soon learn them or just look at the animals and talk about them and the tricks they get up to.
The animals come in two by two, three by three, four by four etc so it is easy to incorporate a little maths.

Thanks to ‘Youarebrainy’ for this worksheet for very young children. ‘More than’ and ‘less than’ are important concepts for children to understand and they need plenty of practical work at home before moving onto worksheets: eg ask questions during everyday life, such as ‘Have I got more cake than you?’

Again, if using a worksheet with young children make sure that you sit down with them and talk about it - the pictures as well as what needs to be done.

Reception maths worksheet: One more than

I’ve just heard that MathSphere (one of the most successful school providers of Maths software) have launched a superb offer for schools.

If a school buys a site licence for any of the MathSphere software then they will provide 32 CDs with the same content for the school to give to parents: and all for just £75.00.

This includes the worksheet CDs and Calculations. At the moment parents can buy these for £20 or £11.75 each, so if you are thinking of purchasing, why not contact your school and see if the are willing to spend £75 to get 32 extra to give away?

I notice that this offer is not on-line: schools have to ring (01903 500606) or fax a special order form available at the site.

With the Government pushing Home-School links at the moment it will be interesting to see how many schools will take up the challenge; there are still a lot of schools out there who are unwilling to share the ’secrets’ of their teaching with parents.

Adding or subracting whole hundreds ‘in your head’ can cause problems for children. It takes time to realise that if you know that 6 + 7 = 13 then it is easy to work out 600 + 700. Children are thrown by the larger numbers and do not see the patterns involved. eg:

6 + 7 = 13

60 + 70 = 130

600+ 700 = 1300

A good way to help here is to think of 60 as 6 tens and 70 as 7 tens, so 60 + 70 is 6 tens plus 7 tens and so on. The only real mental calculation that is being done is the original 6 + 7. The rest is an understanding of place value.

Free Y5 maths worksheet: Add or subtract whole hundreds