Category Archives: Maths & Numeracy

Community, English & Literacy, Events, Homework, Maths & Numeracy, Primary 5, Primary 7, Supporting homework, Useful Websites

P4-7 Parent Drop In: Using ICT to Support Homework

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Thank you to all of you who attended the 4-7 parent drop in session, looking at how to use ICT to support learning at home.

If you were unavailable to attend you will find out more information by clicking below:

Sum Dog

Purple Mash

Here is the feedback from those who attended:

Tickled Pink:

  • It was excellent to see SumDog and to know more about Purple Mash. Both will be good learning tools made fun for the children.
  • Sum Dog and Purple Mash both look like fun programmes for learning.

Sum Dog:

  • My child loves it can use it independently.
  • They have never been so keen to do maths homework before this.
  • Likes to compete with friends.
  • Quick, fast, keeps the mind ticking.
  • Feels like a game.
  • Can do it on their own, therefore it doesn’t seem like homework.
  • Instructions really clear and formative.
  • I now understand what Sum Dog does.
  • Excellent way for them to learn in a fun way.

Purple Mash:

  • Really caught their imagination.
  • My child loves it.
  • Great that they can use it independently.
  • Looks like a great tool. Many thanks to Anna for her clear explanation.

Green for Growth:

  • Purple Mash can have some aspects that are quite difficult
  • Would be good to have written work to back up Sum Dog
  • Clearer instructions of what homework is and what is ‘nice to do’
Maths & Numeracy, Primary 1, Uncategorized

P1b Information Handling

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LI: We are learning how to display information on a bar graph.

SC: I can identify the title, x axis, y axis and labels on a bar graph.

LI: We are learning a how to interpret information on a bar graph.

SC: I can analyse information on a bar graph using the y axis to help me.

Through the context of our Toys topic, Primary 1b have been learning about different ways to collect, sort and display information.

We have:

– Carried out surveys, recording our results with tally marks;

– Sorted our toys and other information on Venn Diagrams using our own and given criteria; and

– Displayed information about our favourite toys on a block graph.

On Friday, we learned about bar graphs. We created a copy of the block graph which we made on Monday, to allow us to transform it into a bar graph. First we drew around the outline of each tower of blocks, and imagined that we were melting blocks of chocolate into long bars of chocolate.

Then we realised that we could no longer count how many people voted for each toy. After some brainstorming, Oscar suggested that we needed to put numbers on our graph. That’s when we learned about the purpose of the y axis.

We used our bar graph to answer interpretation questions. Amorie analysed the bar graph and told everyone that dolls were the most popular toy, and Isla MacKinnon told everyone that construction toys were the least popular.

Finally we applied what we had learned in order to interpret a variety of other bar graphs online.IMG_8461

Achievements, Events, Maths & Numeracy, Primary 5, Primary 7, Uncategorized, Useful Websites

Sumdog’s West Lothian Maths Contest

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A huge well done to all the children in Primary 5-7 that took part in Sumdog’s West Lothian Maths Contest last week. Each person that contributed was to answer 1000 questions on a variety of topics within maths and were then ranked based on how many questions they answered correctly. Out of the 743 children that took part, Mid Calder had 10 pupils in the top 50! A fantastic achievement, and a brilliant opportunity to build upon your mental maths skills. Congratulations! 

Events, Maths & Numeracy, Primary 7, Transition

Maths Glow Meet: Dividing and Fractions

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Today Primary 7 pupils had a Maths lesson with a difference! Last week a Maths teacher from West Calder High School came to our school to teach us the first lesson in a series of 3 about dividing and fractions, this is relevant to work we have been learning about in our Maths Groupings and consolidated some of our learning from last session. Today was the second part of the lesson which was delivered through Glow Meet. Glow Meet is a virtual learning room so we could see the teachers at the high school and also all the other P7s in our cluster primary schools. We were asked questions by the high school team and we had to answer using our whiteboards via the webcam. Our teachers were very impressed that we had remembered so much about fractions. Unfortunately due to a few technical issues we had to finish our Glow Meet early, but we are very grateful to the Maths Department at WCHS for organising this and are looking forward to the next one.

Maths & Numeracy, Primary 7, Supporting homework, Uncategorized

Taking Maths Outside

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We are learning to work out and record my division calculations in a variety of different ways. MNU 2-03a

  • I can explain mental strategies for answering division questions.
  • I can explain and demonstrate written strategies for answering 3 digit by 1 digit division problems with remainders.

Today we  took our mental maths outside. First of all we had to see who could recall and write out their 6 times tables most accurately. We know that accuracy is important with our times tables because we want to be correct and quick.

Then we had our number talks session outside. This week we have starting taking part in Number Talks each day for 15 minutes. During number talks we mentally calculate the answer to three sums which get more difficult across the lesson and week. The most important part of Number Talks is we discuss the different strategies we used to get the answer. Today we wrote down the answer and then explained the strategy we used to our peers. We have only been using Number Talks for 3 days and already we feel:

  • ‘Mental Maths is more fun!’
  • ‘We feel more confident because we discuss strategies more’.
  • ‘We are getting quicker at answering sums’.
  • ‘We can use other children’s strategies’.
  • ‘It helps us with our number work’.

We moved on to look at how to use written strategies to find the answers to division sums with bigger numbers. Some of us were the teacher and shared our strategies on the whiteboard then we had three activities to complete:

  • Sum Dog division and multiplication challenge
  • 3 in a row game: We had to pick a 3 digit number, our partner gave us a 2 digit number using a spinner and we had to calculate the answer. If we got it correct we put a counter on the gameboard.
  • Division assessment

We now feel more confident about the process of division because of all the different activities we have taken part in this week.

 

Homework help: You can support your child at home by continually asking them to say their times tables as a sum, for example 6 x 5 = 30 and asking them the related division fact, 30 divided by 6. Also encourage them to take part in the Sum Dog competition online, a different competition is set each week related to the concept they are learning in class.

English & Literacy, Homework, Maths & Numeracy, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 5, Primary 7, Supporting homework, Technologies, Useful Websites

Homework: Using Purple Mash at home to support literacy and numeracy

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All pupils will soon have a Purple Mash login in their reading records or homework diary. Purple Mash helps develop literacy and numeracy skills in relevant and engaging ways whilst promoting ICT skills.

You can find out more about Purple Mash by clicking here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxDWPUZVSNc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahKiZpM_H_0

Pupils can log into Purple Mash using their logon through the following link: https://www.purplemash.com/sch/midcalder-EH53

Homework, Maths & Numeracy, Primary 5, Primary 7, Supporting homework, Useful Websites

Homework: Sum Dog

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As you know pupils in P5-7 have a Sum Dog login, Sum Dog helps develop pupils numeracy skills by asking them mathematical questions (related to what they have been learning in class) and also helps to develop accuracy and speed. Pupils should be encouraged to use their log in at home through the Sum Dog website or by downloading the Sum Dog app to your device.

If your child is in P1-4 you can create them a Sum Dog account.

For more information visit:

http://www.sumdog.com/en/parents/

 

Interdisciplinary Learning, Maths & Numeracy, Primary 2

Primary Two Share Their Learning at the Mid Calder Primary Open Afternoon

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To celebrate our learning so far this term we invited our parents and families into the school so we could share what we have been learning for Money Fortnight and in our Interdisciplinary Learning which focused on traditional tales. We especially keen to share our story books that we wrote all by ourselves and we were able to show our skills when using coins to pay for items in our toy shop. Thank you to everyone who came along.

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Community, Events, Interdisciplinary Learning, Maths & Numeracy, Money Fortnight 2015, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 5, Primary 7

Money Fortnight Open Afternoon

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To celebrate the end of Money Fortnight we invited our parents and families into school to share with them what we have been learning about in connection with money, and also our interdisciplinary learning context for learning. Activities included visiting the bank, sharing our storybook, making a rainforest in a bottle and making sushi. Thank you to all the parents and families that came along to support this event, there was a great ‘buzz’ around the school.