Top Tips For Parents
Junior/Senior Infants
Sorting experiences provide opportunities for children to explore the properties of objects and to observe similarities and differences between them. Use a range of everyday contexts:
Sorting experiences provide opportunities for children to explore the properties of objects and to observe similarities and differences between them. Use a range of everyday contexts:
- Sorting clothes after washing (T-shirts, jumpers, trousers, dresses)
- Sorting cutlery at mealtimes (knives, forks, spoons)
- Sorting toy vehicles (cars, buses, lorries)
Matching items establishes a one-to-one correspondence between them and is an important prerequisite skill in learning to count. Useful activities include:
- Pairing socks, shoes, gloves
- Putting one cup on each saucer, one lid on each saucepan
- Giving each teddy a biscuit
Engaging children in a range of stories, rhymes and songs offers opportunities to explore number and counting and other mathematical ideas such as sequencing, size and quantity, shape and space.
- Rhymes and songs such as ‘One, two, buckle my shoe’, ‘One, two, three, four, five, once I caught a fish alive’ (counting forwards) and ‘Ten green bottles’, ‘Five little ducks went swimming one day’ (counting backwards)
- Stories such as ‘The Three Little Pigs’ (number), ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ (days of the week), ‘Where’s Spot?’ (position)
Middle Classes
Shopping experiences
- Handling small amounts of money
- Selecting coins to pay for goods
- Working out the total cost of two or more items
- Checking change
- Comparing prices (which is more expensive?)
- Talking about pocket money and whether there is enough saved to buy a particular treat
Time
- Ordering and sequencing events (when getting dressed, going to bed)
- Setting the timer and counting down to bedtime
- Talking about significant times (lunchtime, bedtime) and dates (birthdays, New Year)
- Recording dates and appointments on a calendar or in a diary
- Reading times, particularly on analogue clocks (clocks with hands)
Mathematics outdoors
- Counting everything! (objects, actions, sounds)
- Talking about directions (forwards, backwards, left, right)
- Looking for patterns (bricks, windows, fences, paving)
- Talking about shapes (road signs, buildings, statues)
- Comparing sizes (items in the shopping basket, tools in the garden shed)
- Exploring car number plates (odd and even numbers, numbers ending in 5 or 0)
Games
- Games involving matching, numbers and counting – Snap, Dominoes, Snakes and Ladders, hopscotch
- Games involving calculating scores – Scrabble, bowling
Senior Classes
Developing financial capability
- Solving problems involving money
- Discussing special offers (half price, 3 for the price of 2, 20% off)
- Talking about ‘best buys’ (Is it better to buy a pack of six or six individual items?)
- Planning ahead in terms of saving and spending; prioritising needs and wants
- Discussing foreign currency
Time and distance
- Reading analogue and digital times
- Calculations involving passage of time (The journey takes 2 ½ hours. When will we arrive? The cake needs 40 minutes to bake. When will it be ready?)
- Reading timetables (24 hour times)
- Estimating how long it will take to travel a certain distance
- Working out average speeds
Mathematics at home
- Measuring ingredients for a recipe
- Looking at the nutritional information on food packaging
- Being involved in DIY tasks (calculating how much curtain fabric is needed, how many floor tiles)
- Exploring weather data (temperature, rainfall) before going on holiday
- Planning a menu or a family outing (estimating quantities, working out costs)
Games
- Games involving strategic thinking/logic – draughts, chess, Connect 4
- Games involving money transactions – Monopoly”
Useful Maths Websites.