DCBEAGLE CHALLENGES
BEYOND THE TEXTBOOK
June 2016
Douglas Buchanan ~ [email protected] ~ www.dcbeagle.com ~ @dcbeagle1
I was at the Eden Project in Cornwall last week and what a wonderful experience it
was. The plan started off with a school, Roselyon, inviting me to host a small Year 5
challenge but they approached Eden and everything snowballed from there – two
challenges with 150 young mathematicians from 37 schools participating in each. The
hall looked down onto the magnificent ‘bubbles’ with bright sunshine on them.
Launch of a maths conference in Buckinghamshire (this has taken the place of the
Windsor event)
I have met Liz Gibbs several times and she is such a vibrant and enthusiastic person
who puts across her philosophy of maths teaching in a positive way. Delegates will be
bombarded with many ideas to take back to their schools to enhance the teaching in
the classrooms
A HANDS ON APPROACH TO MATHEMATICS
For Key Stage 2 teachers but the activities can be adapted for Key Stage 1
Friday 4 November - 10:00am
Davenies School, Beaconsfield
Cost: £130 per delegate and this includes all materials and a scrumptious lunch.
Course Aims:
To consider the importance of place value and the number system
To use a range of manipulatives to teach number and shape
To explore a range of mathematical games and activities
Course Description:
“I believe that you don’t need lots of different resources in a classroom, you only
need a few key resources and then you need to know how to make the most of
them.”
This course will provide delegates with a wide range of activities and approaches to
teach place value, number and geometry.
Delegates will be given the opportunity to play games and consider adapting them to
meet the specific needs of their children.
Liz Gibbs
Liz is an experienced classroom teacher, subject leader, local, national and
international adviser. She has nearly 20 years of full time teaching experience in the
classroom and has taught children from the ages of 4 to 13 years. It is important to
Liz that she maintains a balance of school based work with teachers and children,
school improvement work and delivering workshops, courses and conferences.
Liz has a great deal of overseas experience working chiefly in Asia but latterly,
Europe and the Middle East.
To register for the conference please visit
http://www.dcbeagle.com/daveniesconfernce112016.html.
Puzzle of the month
Heat Wave puzzle
4 married couples went on a picnic and they took 32 bottles of lemonade – remember
theses puzzles come from a 1950s book. Mary only disposed 1 bottle, Ann had two
and Jane had three bottles and finally Liz consumed 4. John McGregor drank the
same quantity as his better half. Lloyd Jones drank twice as much as his wife and
William Smith drank 3 times as much as his wife and Patrick Dolan disposed of 4 times
as much as his wife.
Which man was married to which woman?
Websites of the month
1001 mathproblems (http://www.1001mathproblems.com)
This is an ideal website for the summer holidays for Key Stage 2 pupils. The puzzles
are varied with many old favourites and they can be done as a family project.
Math Salamanders (http://www.math-salamanders.com)
This website covers a much wider age range and all the puzzles can be printed out if
required.
Videos of the month
BBC Maths Channel - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007cnyb - click on clips. Key
Stage 2
Maths Mansion – click here – Channel 4 series … still one of my favourites.
Donald Duck in MathMagic – click here
DCBEAGLE Challenges – Christmas Term, 20156
The good news is that all the hosts of next term’s challenges have agreed to the dates
and timings and by the end of next week invitations will be sent out for all the events.
Jump the queue and book now! All the details and booking links can be found on my
Portfolio page: http://www.dcbeagle.com/dcbportfolio.html.
Friday
16-Sep-16
Year 6 Maths
Wrekin College Shropshire
Thursday
22-Sep-16
Year 5 Maths
Christ Hospital, Horsham
Friday
23-Sep-16
Year 4 Maths
Davenies Beaconsfield
Tuesday
27-Sep-16
Year 6 Maths
Windlesham House Sussex
Thursday
29-Sep-16
Year 5 Maths
St Andrew’s Eastbourne
Friday
30-Sep-16
Year 5 Maths
Crosfields, Reading
Tuesday
04-Oct-16
Year 6 Maths
Red Maids' Bristol - FULL
Wednesday
05-Oct-16
Year 4 Maths
King Edwards School Bath
Monday
10-Oct-16
Year 5 Maths
Ballard School, Bournemouth
Tuesday
11-Oct-16
Year 6 Maths
Dean Close, Cheltenham
Thursday
03-Nov-16
Year 6 Maths
St Edward's School Oxford
Friday
04-Nov-16
Maths conference
Davenies, Beaconsfield
Monday
07-Nov-16
Year 5 Maths
Old Palace of John Whitgift, Croydon
Tuesday
08-Nov-16
Year 4 Maths
Summer Fields, Oxford
Friday
11-Nov-16
Year 4 Maths
St Edward's Cheltenham
Thursday
17-Nov-16
Year 6 Maths
Aldwickbury School
Friday
18-Nov-16
Year 5 Maths
St Edward's Cheltenham
Tuesday
22-Nov-16
Year 5 Maths
Rupert House, Henley
Thursday
24-Nov-16
Year 6 Maths
Monkton Combe Bath
Puzzle of the month solution
Mary and William. Ann and Patrick. Jane and John. Liz and Lloyd.
Final words
It has been a wonderful year for me and I would like to thank you for supporting the
newsletter and my events. My aim is always to put something back into education
during my retirement years.
With the hype of the summer holidays looming and the exciting school events leading
up to it you will not be really interested in reading my newsletter so the next publication
will be in September. Happy holidays!