The first worksheet is a reminder of the golden rules about multiplying:

When a number is multiplied by 10 it moves one place to the left.

When a number is multiplied by 100 it moves two places to the left.

The second worksheet looks at multiplication and addition with another golden rule. The rule is that the multiplication should be worked out before the addition, whatever the order of the question. This is a good mental arithmetic exercise but children may need to make jottings to help them.

We also have a harder version of the 2x table calculator game, published earlier, in that the grid has larger multiples of 2.

The Player must say which number they are going for before typing in the multiplication on the calculator and can only place a counter if correct. Try it!

3x table calculator game

If you only look at good schools once every five years, satisfactory schools once every three years and poor schools all the time then the figures are going to show that a larger proportion of schools are going to be judged poor. (Rather like looking at one Premier League football  game, 5 Championship games and 50 Division 2 games and concluding that more football games are poor than they were in the past when 10 of each were viewed.)
It is not very helpful to anyone to compare figures which have been produced using different systems, but maths has never been Ofsted’s strong point!

Most of the worksheets that you see free online are for numbers and calculating, as these are the easiest to produce. However, mathsblog has an excellent range of worksheets across all areas of maths, including data handling. Here is a page on interpreting bar charts, which also uses the 24 hour clock. it is important to point out that charts such as these must have a proper title and that the axes must be labelled. When children produce their own bar charts they often forget to do this labelling.

When looking at a bar chart one of the first things to do is work out how the numbers are being represented. In this case the number of people on the bus is shown in blocks of 10 and half way between would be a block of 5.

Bar chart: buses

Getting a clear concept of amount of time is important for young children. This page challenges children to complete a number of tasks in one minute, such as how tall a tower can be built using blocks/lego etc.

An important part of this is to make sure that they make an estimate/guess before starting which shows how realistic they are about time. This resource can be found in our Year 2 measurement section.

One minute

Secondly, to be able to write 600ml as a fraction of 1litre eg 600/1000.

Thirdly to be able to simplify fractions eg 600/1000 is equivalent to 6/10.

Watch out for question 11 as it is easy to think that there are just 100 sq cm in a square metre when, in fact, it is many, many more!

What fraction of… (pg 1)

Whilst I’m totally in favour of improving maths I do think all these sites should be given equal chances to advertise: but I believe that the BBC are not supposed to advertise.

Secondly, to be able to write 600ml as a fraction of 1litre eg 600/1000.

Thirdly to be able to simplify fractions eg 600/1000 is equivalent to 6/10.

Getting a clear concept of amount of time is important for young children. Next week’s page on time challenges children to complete a number of tasks in one minute, such as how tall a tower can be built using blocks/lego etc.

Also coming soon is a calculations game to help with learning the two times table.

A good way to reinforce the 2x table is to play this fun game. All you need is the grid, some counters or cubes and a calculator. Set the calculator up as a 2x table answer machine by keying in 2, x, x, =, 0 and then all you need to do is press a number and the equals sign and it will show the answer to the number multiplied by 2. Just type in the next number, press equals and so on…

The aim of the game is to make a line of four in a row in any direction.

2x table calculator game

Let’s look at 3005 – 8 which is easier to do mentally than on paper.

There are several ways that this can be done.

1. Count down, one at a time, 8 from 3005, saying each number as you go. Fingers may be held up on each count down until 8 is reached.

3004, (1), 3003 (2), 3002 (3), 3001 (4), 3000 (5), 2999 (6), 2998 (7), 2997 (8)

2. A different way is to take the 8 from 3000,  then add 5.

3000 – 8 = 2992

2992 + 5 = 2997

3. A third way is to take 5 off the 8 leaving 3.

Then take 3 off 3000 = 2997

It is well worth talking to children about how they do this kind of question and what strategies they employ. Much will depend on their knowledge of number.

Find a difference by counting up (pg 1)