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Crib Sheet
Our daily guide to educational jargon,
teaching methods and the strange things children may bring back
from school as homework. If there is a particular aspect of your
child's education you wish explaining, use the POL Ask
an Expert service.
The Language of Mathematics
It's easy to think of mathematics as something
to be understood - a set of concepts, such as what you're really
doing when you 'carry one' in an addition sum; and even easier
to see it as a skill to be used - how to add up and perform other
arithmetical operations, how to work out area and volume, and
how to use mathematical instruments such as rulers, protractors
and weighing scales.
But neither of these are any use to your
child if she doesn't know how to bring maths into her everyday
life, and how to understand the different ways we have of talking
about maths and discussing maths problems.
This is an area where you can really make
a difference - all you have to do is find different ways of talking
about what you're doing when you carry out simple every day activities
such as shopping, cooking and watching television.
The most important thing is to find different
ways of expressing ideas, rather than letting your child get
the idea that there is only one right way. It's impossible to
list all the different variations you could use, but here you'll
find some examples in each area of mathematics. You'll notice
that not all of these are totally grammatical - that's because
people don't necessarily talk in 'proper English'!
Number
Addition
- Add three and five.
- What do you get if you add three and five?
- What do three and five come to?
- If I have three, and you give me five
more, how many do I have altogether?
- Three and five is....?
- Three plus five make?
- How many do three and five make?
Subtraction
- What is nine minus six?
- What do you get if you take six from nine?
- If I have nine, and I give you six, how
many do I have left?
- How many are left over if you take six
away from nine?
- Six from nine is....?
- Subtract six from nine.
- What is nine subtract six?
Multiplication
- What are seven eights?
- What are eight lots of seven?
- What do you get if you multiply eight
by seven?
- What is eight by seven?
- If there are eight children, and they
each have seven apples, how many apples is that altogether?
- Times eight by seven.
Division
- Divide fourteen by seven.
- What is fourteen divided by seven?
- Share fourteen oranges between seven people.
- Put fourteen into seven groups.
- If I share fourteen oranges between seven
people, how many oranges does each person get?
Measures
Length
- How long is this?
- What is the length of this?
- Is this longer than that?
- Is this shorter than that?
- Is this long enough?
- Which of these is the longest?
- Which of these is the shortest?
- How much longer than that is this?
- How much shorter than this is that?
- How high is that?
- What height is that?
Weight
- How much does this weigh?
- Is this heavy?
- Is this light?
- Is this lighter than that?
- Which of these is the heaviest?
- What weight is this?
- Does this weigh enough?
- Is this heavier than that?
Area
- This room is fifteen metres wide by twenty
long.
- Is the carpet big enough to cover the
floor?
- What size is that piece of paper?
- This is ten centimetres square.
- This is ten square centimetres.
- What is the area of that wall?
- Which of these is bigger - the envelope
or the stamp?
Volume
- How much shampoo is there?
- There's half a litre of milk left.
- Is the bottle big enough to take all the
orange juice?
- Will the orange juice fit in the bottle?
- Is there more orange juice or milk left?
Time
The Clock
- What time is it?
- Could you tell me the time, please?
- It's exactly twelve noon.
- It's three fifteen.
- The time is quarter past three.
- It's quarter to four.
- It's four p.m.
Timetables
- Am I early?
- The bus is late!
- What time is Rugrats on?
- Three minutes to go!
- We've got half-an-hour to get there...
- The next bus will be here in fifteen minutes.
- Who got here first?
- Ahmed got here before Clare.
- Zainab got here after Roy.
Maths in the National Curriculum
Helping with Maths Homework
Other Crib Sheets
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