Maths is everywhere at Cliftonville

Beach Maths

Year 4 took their classroom to the beach to learn about capacity. They all completed four activities that involved estimating or measuring capacity:

The children used a litre bottle of sea water to try and estimate the capacity of other containers. 

They used measuring spoons to find the capacity of a variety of beach toys. 

They had to order eight different sized and shaped buckets according to their capacities. 

The children used measuring cylinders and jugs to measure how much sand a range of different containers could hold. 

The children loved learning about capacity in this way and now have a very good understanding of what a litre bottle looks like and how much a teaspoon will hold. It took lots of organising by the staff, but they all reported it was invaluable in bringing this topic to life!

 'Shape, Space and Measures' day.

The children spent all day working in groups doing practical activities that involved using the skills and strategies they had been learning in class. There were many activities that involved a variety of measures and the children had to weigh items, and measure capacity and length. Some of the children devised their own investigations with surprising results. Did you know that your leg is approximately 3 times the length of your foot?  There were also activities with shape. They had to recall the names and properties of shapes they had been learning about in class to create 3D shapes. When talking about position the children were using coordinates and the compass points. The children thoroughly enjoyed this maths themed day and consolidated so much learning as well as adding new skills and strategies to their mathematical understanding.

Mathematical board games

Year 5 have been using their maths, organisational and team work skills to design and make a board game to help Year 2 children with their maths.  The children worked very hard and created some professional looking games with clear instructions.  After testing them out on each other, they taught Year 2 children how to play them.  All the children enjoyed the session and it was really great to see the patience and kindness of the older children in helping the younger children doing calculations.