St Paul’s C of E
Junior School
Helping your child at
homewith
withLiteracy
Maths
home
In the modern world of credit cards, online shopping and computer
games, there are fewer opportunities for children to use maths in
everyday life than in the past. This booklet gives a whole range of ideas
for using maths outside of school.
Whatever you do, make sure your children enjoy it!
Involve children in the situations in which you use maths in everyday
life to make it relevant and purposeful. Try to involve your child in as
many problem-solving activities as possible. The more ‘real’ a problem is,
the more motivated they will be when trying to solve it.
Encouraging them to play with numbers and develop a range of mental
calculation strategies will also help build confidence and competence.
Many parents will find that the way maths is taught today is different
from their own experience. If there are specific aspects of maths you
would like to know more about, talk to your child’s teacher or refer to
the school’s ‘How we do it’ guide on written calculation methods.
Different contexts for using maths include:
 Games
 Shopping
 Cooking and mealtimes
 Planning a party or trip
 In the car and on journeys
 In the garden or park
The following pages contain activities that can be done in any setting or
context.
Lower School – Years 3 & 4
Number, Counting and Calculation
 counting – stairs (in 1’s or 2’s), cars on a journey, steps as you walk
to the local shop, people getting on or off the bus, pages read...
 make bead strings for counting, alternating colour every 10 beads
 talk about what whole numbers mean when they appear in everyday
situations such as car number plates, road signs, on a clock face, a
flat or a house number.
 count out odd and even house numbers on a street
 add up the digits on number plates.
 re-order the digits to find the smallest/largest number
 are the number plates odd or even?
 telephone number totals
 play simple counting games such as:
 snakes and ladders
 counting buttons
 choose two dominoes and count the total number of spots
 counting pocket money
 go shopping with your child to buy two or three items. Ask them to
work out the total amount spent and how much change you will get
 have I got enough money to pay for it all?
 what money/coins do I need to hand over?
 what change/coins should I get? Counting to check change
 lay the table for a meal – selecting the correct number of items and
matching them
 sharing out food equally (eg 16 potatoes between 4)
 practise fractions while cutting pizzas, cakes and sandwiches
 from a pack of cards (without the tens, the Jacks, the Queens and
the Kings) play a game of pairs where you try to turn over two
cards that add up to 10
 use a set of playing cards (no pictures). Turn over two cards and ask
your child to add or multiply the numbers. If they answer
correctly, they keep the cards.
 with a pack of dominoes play the game of ‘pairs’ where you turn over
two dominoes so the total number of spots is 12
 from a pack of cards (without the tens, the Jacks, Queens and
Kings) play a game where each player is dealt four cards and
everyone has 1 minute to make up a calculation using cards they
have in their hand so the answer is the value of the next card
turned over. A scoring system can be used such as 1 point for using
two cards, 2 points for using three cards and 3 points for using all
four cards
 throw 2 dice, ask your child to find the total of the numbers (+),
the difference between them (-) or the product (x). Can they do
this without counting? Extend to rolling the dice twice to make 2digit numbers.
 dice bingo: throw 2 dice and multiply the numbers together – cross
off the numbers on a ‘Bingo’ card, such as:
10
5
9
6
15
20
8
12
4
Ordering, Sorting and Making Patterns
Play simple ordering games such as:
 sorting games such as sorting a collection of buttons, shells or
leaves by colour or by size
 from a pack of cards, take out the Jacks, Queens and Kings, shuffle
the numbered cards, choose any ten and put them in order
Play simple pattern-making games such as:
 with a collection of tiddlywinks make patterns such as 2 red, 1 blue,
2 red, 1 blue…
 make patterns out of ten tiddlywinks such as:
 do a tally of different coloured cars and then draw a bar chart
when you get home
Shape, Space and Measure
 talk about 2D and 3D shapes that can be found in the house (eg
windows, banisters, tins, boxes) and garden (lawn, flower bed,
paths, patio and paving slabs)
 choose a shape of the week e.g. cylinder. Look for this shape in the
environment (tins, candles etc). Ask your child to describe the
shape to you (2 circular faces, 2 curved edges)
 hunt for right angles around your home. Can your child spot angles
bigger or smaller than a right angle?
 when someone opens a door, talk about the angle the door has
turned through
 look for symmetrical objects (including garden objects and flowers)
 help your child to draw or paint symmetrical pictures / patterns
 read scales when weighing, measuring capacity and timing when
cooking
 find out how many millilitres different containers hold, such as a
cup, perhaps estimating answers first then using a measuring jug to
check the estimates
 talk about numbers that you see on packets or tins of food. This
could include talking about how healthy different foods are
 weigh your pet by getting your child to weigh themselves on the
bathroom scales. Then they weigh themselves again while holding
the family pet. Can they work out how much the pet weighs?
 help your child to use different rulers and tape measures correctly
 play a game of estimating then measuring the lengths of objects in
the house
 calculate the difference between the heights of family members
 practise measuring the lengths or heights of objects (in metres or
cm)
 when playing ball games, ask them to measure out the area for a
game in paces, and talk about different shapes and sizes of
equipment
 use a real clock to talk about the times certain events happen at
home, for example, getting up in the morning, meal times, when the
post arrives
 refer to the clock at different times throughout the day, setting
times for certain events, e.g. ‘We’ll have lunch at 1 o’clock. How long
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is it until lunch time?’, timing events, e.g. ‘How long will it take to
wash the dishes?’
ask your child to be a ‘timekeeper’ (e.g. tell me when it is half past
four because then we are going swimming)
read the time to the nearest 5 minutes or minute in 12-hour clock
time, including use of am and pm (analogue and digital clocks)
plan a TV viewing session – How long will the programme last?
set an alarm clock
plan a journey. The journey takes 2½ hours, when will we arrive? We
need to be there at 2.00 pm, when do we need to leave home?
read road signs to calculate distances and times (How much
further/longer?)
use bus or train timetables to calculate journey times and arrival
times
use calendars – days, weeks, months
Upper School – Years 5 & 6
Please note: Some of the activities in the Lower School section may
still be appropriate for Years 5 and 6
Number and Calculation
 discuss how you might work out the cost of a week’s food for the
family
 play the ‘estimate the size of the shopping bill’ game, that is, round
every item to the nearest 50p and see how the estimated bill
compares to the actual cost
 work out or estimate a restaurant bill
 compare prices (eg. by calculating cost per unit / hundred etc.)
 talk about supermarket offers, for example, “3 for the price of 2”,
“Buy 1 get 1 free”, “Two for £2”, “Buy one get one half price”. Work
out together which is the cheapest or best value
 calculate percentage sales discounts - how much of the product is
free?
 work together to plan a party or meal on a budget
 look at the weather page in a local newspaper or website and find
out what all the different sets of numbers/pieces of information
mean
 try to find examples of numbers that contain fractions or decimals
in a daily newspaper, a magazine or on food containers
 look for and discuss the use of percentages in articles in a
newspaper or on the television or discuss the per cent (%) interest
on a savings account
 work out averages from sports results
 read a thermometer to identify negative numbers
 find the product of two, or even all of, the numbers on number
plates
 what numbers are factors of the number plates?
 estimate larger numbers, such as how many bricks were used to
build the wall or the house, by counting a sample
 consider the probabilities of certain events happening when playing
simple games with dice, for example, the chance of gaining a
particular total when two dice are thrown
Shape, Space and Measure
 work out how much time, on average, different people spend doing
different things at home, for example, eating, tidying up, cooking,
playing, watching television, using a computer, sleeping. How long
each day, week, month etc?
 use a TV guide. Ask your child to work out the length of their
favourite programmes
 calculate the age of people/buildings by their date of birth/
construction
 measure ingredients when cooking, talking about what each division
on the scale stands for
 choose some food items out of the cupboard. Try to put the objects
in order of weight, by feel alone. Check by looking at the amounts
on the packets or by weighing them
 take opportunities to discuss weights written on packets of food
and what they mean in terms of grams and kilograms
 estimate how many tomatoes will make 1kg
 estimate the capacity of various bottles and containers
 adapt recipe amounts for different numbers of people
 use pieces of card to make a three dimensional model of a room to a
sensible scale
 read timetables and maps when planning a journey
 look at maps of different scales of your local area, for example, a
road atlas and a web map, and discuss how far it is from your home
city, town or village to other nearby places
 use coordinates and grid references
 use a compass when walking to read bearings (angles)
 plan an outing by estimating how long the journey will take (taking
into account average car speeds and distances), when you should set
off, how many litres of petrol will be needed/cost of petrol. How
many miles to the litre?
 work out the area of the garden or patio
 make scale models - design a new layout for a bedroom using a scale
plan
 when going on holiday, make a conversion graph for the currency of
the country you are visiting
 investigate time zones around the world
Mental Maths Activities (These can be adapted to age or ability)
Try to practise for a few minutes each day using a range of vocabulary.
 play ‘ping pong’ to practise number bonds or complements with your
child. You say a number. They reply with how much more is needed
to make 10. You can also play this game with numbers totalling 20,
100 or 1000.
 give your child a number fact (e.g. 5+3=8). Ask them what else they
can find out from this fact (e.g. 3+5=8, 8-5=3, 8-3=5, 50+30=80,
500+300=800, 5+4=9, 15+3=18). Add to the list over the next few
days. Try starting with a multiplication fact as well.
 ‘Guess my number’, asking questions that you can only answer yes or
no to, (good for a journey!). Children can use words such as odd,
even, multiple etc in their questions.
 ‘Guess my shape’. Children can ask questions relating to sides (equal,
opposite, parallel, adjacent), corners (vertices), symmetry, etc.
 'The answer is 10 (or any number), what’s the question?’
Possible responses: 8 plus 2, 1 million divided by one hundred
thousand, 5 x 2, 25 – 15, 2.5 times 4, the square root of 100.
 doubling and halving.
Times Tables
Knowledge of times tables is useful in so many areas of maths
(multiplication, division, fractions, ratio, area etc.). Developing and
maintaining a rapid recall of times tables facts helps build children’s
confidence and makes it easier to for them to take on new learning.
Times tables should be learnt not just in order, by counting on, but must
be learnt as multiplication facts along with their corresponding division
facts (ie. If they know that 6 x 4 is 24, then they know that 24 ÷ 4 is 6)
Make it into a game if possible, e.g. have a set of cards numbered 1-10,
pick a number such as 4, say 4 times the number on the card as each is
turned over, keep all the cards you get right. Times tables songs can be
bought on CD.
Calculating
When faced with a calculation problem, encourage your child to ask…
Can I do this in my head?
Could I do this in my head using drawings or jottings to help me?
Do I need to use a written method?
Should I use a calculator?
Also help your child to estimate and then check the answer. Encourage
them to ask…
Is the answer sensible?
Don’t forget that learning to use a calculator is also an important skill –
it’s not always cheating! It is important that they can interpret money on
a calculator (eg 50p is displayed as 0.5)
Always encourage them to explain to you how they worked out the answer
to the problem.
Indoor games that use maths
 Snakes and Ladders
 Ludo
 Dominoes
 Playing card games: rummy, patience, pontoon, whist
 Skittles
 Darts
 Snooker or Pool
 Monopoly
 Bingo
 Battleships
 Strategic and logic games: draughts, chess, mastermind
Useful Websites
www.bbc.co.uk/schools
www.bbc.co.uk/learning
www.channel4learning.com/apps/homeworkhigh
www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning
www.nrich.maths.org
http://www.counton.org/
www.gridclub.com
http://www.sparkisland.com
http://www.sums.co.uk/playground.htm
www.primarygames.co.uk
http://www.funbrain.com/
http://www.mathsnet.net/
Make Maths Fun!
(This booklet has been adapted from the DCSF publication
Understanding Progress in Mathematics: A Guide for Parents)