Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.
Aims
The national curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:
become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language
can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and nonroutine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.
Meet Margot Mathematician.
Margot is part of our Curriculum Crew who is introduced at the start of each mathematical strand and lesson, providing a visual link to lessons and allows our children to focus on the skills needed in the upcoming tasks.
Margot is featured in our Maths Knowledge Organisers - allowing the children to revisit and consolidate prior learning as well as acquiring new skills.
Mathematics is a specific area of the EYFS, it means that it is more commonly focussed upon with children aged 3 and above, however, it is best practice that practitioners actively promote mathematics around the younger children as well as the older ones. We use various approaches at Sea View to promote development in mathematics. It is important to find the most effective approach for the individual child and ensure that each task or approach sets out achievable challenges.
Group activities – fun group learning games. These encourage other skills as well promote mathematical development.
Child led – Having the environment set up in a maths-friendly manner, so the children have lots of opportunities to discover and learn about maths for themselves. Having numbers in the environment or in messy play trays or role play areas can support this
Practitioner interaction – Sensitive interaction from practitioners when children are playing or engaged in an activity can create lots of positive maths language and skills. Such as talking about the shapes that can be seen in the environment.
2023-2024
Nursery
In Nursery we have been using our maths in lots of ways - subitising using colourful pasta to match the dice patterns, experimenting with different ways to measure, recognising big things and small things and developing our awareness of number and number names.
We have used our current topic of journeys and different types of transport to support our numeracy. We have been practising 1:1 correspondence, reciting numbers in sequence, using some language of quantities, such as 'more' and sometimes matching numeral and quantity correctly.
Reception
In Reception we have been exploring both giant and small Numicon this week. We loved working together to order them as a class, and have made a Numicon number line to 10 in our books. We have also had a go at making different pictures with the Numicon.
We loved the outdoor maths trail where we had to count objects in the environment and make shapes using objects around us such as stone, twigs, acorns. It was so much fun!
Counting objects using 1:1 correspondence
We are learning to count consistently and accurately. We talked about strategies to help us to count such as touching the objects, or moving them in a line whilst remembering to say a number name for each object. This is a a little tricky and we will practice this all year.
Year 1
Money!
We have been learning about our different coins and their value. We sorted the coins into their value by looking closely at their colour, size and details.
We also visited the Sea View Supermarket to put our knowledge into practise.
We also read the story The Great Pet Sale and used money to make different amounts to buy the pets in the shop.
Representing Numbers
We took our learning outside and played a number game to collect natural resources. We then used a range of resources to show all of the different ways we could represent the numbers.
Year 2
Dragon Problem Solving
Using our story 'The Day the Dragons Came' by Naomi Kefford as a stimulus for our Maths we exploring sharing and number bonds. Using practical resources we found combinations of numbers and recorded the corresponding number sentences.
We then thought about approaches to ensure we found all of the combinations possible and began to work systematically from start to finish to find all of the available bonds.
Unlucky Bean 13
We began our Maths topic of division by exploring sharing through the story Unlucky Bean 13. We investigated numbers using practical resources to see if they were lucky or unlucky when shared between 2 people. We then explored a range of numbers to see if they could be shared equally between 2,3 or 5.
Year 3
Year 3 have had a lot of fun this term working with shape and measurement.
Year 4
We have been learning to find the area of oblongs, squares and compound shapes!
Recognising and using Roman numerals
Year 5
The Highland Falcon Thief.
Inspired by our class novel, we used our mathematical knowledge of fractions of amounts to help us solve problems to help us uncover the true identity of the Highland Falcon Thief.
Place Value Problems - Gangsta Granny Style!
Gangsta Granny over the last six years has won the lottery and needs our knowledge of place value to help share her winnings with her friends and family.
Year 6
The Great Proportional Bake Off
In Maths we have been solving problems involving proportion. To complete this unit we all took part in ‘The Great Proportional Bake Off!’ We were split into 3 groups- Cakes, Pies and Cookies and were each given problems to solve based on the recipes given. We even ended with a ‘Show Stopper Challenge’ where we had to work out how the recipe had changed and for how many people it would serve. Marvellous maths skills were shown throughout the lesson, Prue and Paul would be proud!
In Year 6 we have been reading and writing numbers up to 10,000,000.
We have been ordering numbers up to 10,000,000.
We have been using our rounding rap to help when rounding numbers to different degrees of accuracy.
2022-2023
Nursery
In nursery we are developing an awareness of number and are beginning to organise and categorise objects
We are recognising different sizes, getting to know the daily routine, enjoying emptying and filling containers and using blocks to create our own simple structures.
We have been using Numicon, matching and counting and finding the biggest and smallest numbers.
We used cakes to help us with our subitising. We threw the dice and found the corresponding numeral on the plate and matched the cakes to it.
Winter numeracy
We used subitising to feed penguin some fish, matched 'ice'cubes and mini penguins to the numerals, found the total of two groups of objects and made number lines using the penguin numerals.
During our topic, 'Jasper's Beanstalk', we used various activities to practise matching numeral and quantity correctly and to consolidate our knowledge that numbers identify how many objects are in a set.
Within our topic of The Gruffalo, we used natural forest materials, matching them to the numeral and identifying how many objects are in the set
We used the flowers and foliage to make repeating patterns on our woodland crowns
Reception
We have had fun making our own 3D shapes using marshmallows and sticks . We can now name 3D shapes and talk about some of their properties.
We are learning to find half by sharing. We followed steps to success by counting out the number and then sharing them between 2.
We are learning to add two group of objects together to find the total. We read the number sentence and then added the required number of objects and then solved it. We had a go at recording it too.
In Maths, we enjoyed a visit to the Christmas shop with a purse full of 1 and 2 pence coins. We had to read the number on the price tag and make the amount using the 1p and 2p coins. We learnt that when we count the 2p coin, we tap it twice. We made amounts up to 15p, demonstrating our understanding of how to count the coins. We used the language 'pence', 'penny' and 'coin' during the activity.
We have been learning about the value of numbers 1 and 2 by collecting objects and sorting them into the correct number.
We are practising our counting skills using 1: 1 correspondence and learning to touch objects when counting or move them into a line to ensure accuracy.
We have been playing a maths bingo game by rolling the dice and beginning to subitise (recognise the number of spots without counting)
We are enjoying a maths trail outdoors.
Year 1
Money
We have been learning about the value of different coins and how they can be used. We started our learning by naming and sorting 1p, 2p, 5p and 10p coins. We even had a special challenge of identifying 20p and 50p coins!
We used our fantastic knowledge to visit the Sea View Supermarket where we made amounts to buy items up to 50p.
Some of us even found different ways to make the same amount using different combinations of coins!
Number Bonds!
We have been recapping our knowledge of number bonds to 10 using fun games, Numicon, cubes and even Rainbow Fish scales!
Place Value
We have been using lots of resources to represent 2 digit numbers. We learned about tens and ones, and practised showing the number using base 10.
We have been looking at how we could represent numbers in different ways. The children chose a number and used a range of math resources and number sentences to represent that number.
Year 2
We have been investigating odd and even numbers using numicon!
Fact Families within 10 and 20
We have been exploring the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction when working with fact families. We were able to record 2 addition and subtraction sentences for each family of 3 numbers.
We have been learning about different mathematical symbols in Year 2 including the greater than and less than symbols. We think of the symbols as crocodile mouths that only like to eat the greatest number!
Year Three
Today we used our knowledge of 3D shapes and their properties to make these 3D skeleton shapes.
We have had a lot of fun today exploring 2D shapes and making our 'What am I?' cards to quiz our friends on.
We have been consolidating our knowledge of place value, the number system, odds and evens and more than/less than.
Year Four
Geometry and shape
We have compared and classified a range of shapes, including regular and irregular polygons and quadrilaterals. We identified lines of symmetry and completed symmetrical patterns. We have explored the different types of angles, including acute, obtuse and right angles.
We developed our understanding of coordinates by plotting coordinates in a grid to make polygons. We used coordinates to describe movements on a grid when translating shapes.
We have explored multiplying and dividing numbers by 10, 100 and 1000, including decimal numbers! We then applied these skills to converting between measures of capacity, weight and length.
Fabulous Fractions! We have explored different ways of representing fractions, including equivalent fractions. We have also counted in steps of different fractions and added and subtracted fractions.
In year 4 we started the year looking at place value of 4 digit numbers. We enjoyed using our prior knowledge to solve new challenges.
We used our place value knowledge to look at Roman numerals. We were even set a challenge by Julius Caesar to decode some clues so we were able to find the treasure.
Year 5
A Nice Cup of Tea.
We used our mathematical knowledge of line graphs to plot and track the temperature of a cup of tea which had been insulated using different materials.
In the Spring term, we have been looking at decimals and fractions. We have added and subtracted fractions, found fractions of amounts, compared fractions and decimals and rounded decimals.
Rounding, comparing and ordering decimals
Suffragette Roman Numerals.
Some of our research for our topic on the Suffragettes got mixed up with our maths work. We had to use our knowledge of Roman Numerals to help convert key dates for our data and research to make sense.
Place Value
Year five have began the year confidently in our maths lessons. So far, we have explored place value which is crucial to consolidating mathematical concepts throughout the year.
The children can read and write numbers up to a million, partition seven digit numbers, count forwards and backwards using place value, compare large numbers and order numbers from smallest to largest.
The children particularly enjoyed the challenge of calculating how much money Gangsta Granny and her family received from winning the lottery.
Reading and Writing Numbers
Partitioning Numbers
Comparing Numbers
Gangsta Granny Place Value Challenge
Year 6
Maths Murder Mystery
We completed a maths murder mystery by completing a series of problems to solve who had committed the murder.
Calculating the Mean, Mode, Median and Range
In the Spring Term, we have been calculating the mean, mode, median and range, using our 'Average Rhyme' to help with this.
Comparing Fractions
Beamish Sweet Store enlisted our help as they know how amazing we are with fractions. We converted the fractions so they had the same denominator. We then used the less than and more than symbols to compare, identifying which customer was ordering the bigger bag.
We have been practising our mathematical skills on both TTRockstars and Freckle.
2021-2022
Counting through play
Exploring shape
Problem solving
Building igloos with sugar cubes
How high can you make a tower using paper cups.
Building with cylinders
Exploring numicon
Measuring in adult led activities and play
Adult led activities
Pattern
Ordering numbers through play
Reception
We have been weighing objects and making predictions about the heaviest and lightest object. Then we tried using a non-standard measure -cubes to balance the scales to see how many cubes heavy each item is.
We have been exploring Numicon to make number bonds to 5.
We have been leaning to share objects to find half.
We have been learning to recognise coins and like sorting them and making amounts to find the total.
Year One
In maths we use numicon to help us find number bonds to 10! We also use numicon to solve addition and subtraction number sentences.
Interacting with the starboard to order numbers from lowest to highest.
We have explored capacity and the terms full, half full and empty using the water tray.
We have learnt the names and properties of 2D and 3D shapes!
Year Two
We love to complete open investigations in our maths lessons! In this lesson, we looked at the characters from our story When the Dragons Came and investigated different ways to share the number of scales between each of the dragons. This showed us different ways to partition numbers!
Measuring
We have been working on our measuring skills and looked at how to measure objects around the classroom using cm cubes and rulers.
Year Three
Maths is Fun!
The children fully immerse themselves in the practical side of mathematical learning to consolidate and deepen their skills and understanding. In Year 3 the children really enjoy working with the coins to find totals and make amounts.
Presenting data
Year Five
Negative Numbers
In maths, we have been learning about how to count forwards and backwards using negative numbers. We played a game of connect three. In connect three, you roll dice and consider which sums we could make from the numbers. The object is to get three numbers in a row on the grid. We all had so much fun and considered different strategies to be successful.
Taking inspiration from our fantastic class novel The Explorer, we visited the Amazon Shop to answer word problems relating to adding and subtracting decimal numbers.
Year Six
The Great Proportional Bake Off
In Maths we have been solving problems involving proportion. To complete this unit we all took part in ‘The Great Proportional Bake Off!’ We were split into 3 groups- Cakes, Pies and Cookies and were each given problems to solve based on the recipes given. We even ended with a ‘Show Stopper Challenge’ where we had to work out how the recipe had changed and for how many people it would serve. Marvellous maths skills were shown throughout the lesson, Prue and Paul would be proud!
