SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD’S MATHS

​YEAR 1

Talk together and have fun with numbers and patterns

Help your child to:

• find numbers around your home and neighbourhood, (clocks, letterboxes, speed signs etc.)

• count forwards and backwards (clocks, fingers and toes, letterboxes, action rhymes, signs)

• make patterns when counting “clap 1, stamp 2, clap 3, stamp 4, clap 5 …”

• do sums using objects such as stones or marbles eg 2 + 3, 4 + 1, 5 + 4

• make up number stories, for example, “You have 2 brothers and 2 sisters. There are 4 of them”.

Here’s a tip: maths is an important part of everyday life and there are lots of ways you can make it fun for your child.

Use easy, everyday activities

Involve your child in:

• preparing and sharing out food, for example, “two for me and two for you”. Ask, “How many for each of us?”

• talking about time, for example, “lunchtime”, “storytime”, “bedtime”

• using words in everyday play, such as “under”, “over”, “between”, “around”, “behind”, “up”, “down”, “heavy”, “light”, “round”, “circle”, “yesterday”, “tomorrow”. You can get library books with these words and ideas in them too

• asking questions such as “How many apples do we need for lunches? What do you think the weather is going to be like today/tomorrow? What are we going to do next?”

Here’s a tip: use lots of mathematics words as your child is playing to develop their understanding of early mathematics (for example, “over”, “under”, “first, second, third”, “round”, “through”, “before”, “after”). Use the language that works best for you and your child.

YEAR 2

Talk together and have fun with numbers and patterns

Help your child to:

• find and connect numbers around your home and neighbourhood, for example, find 7, 17 and 27 on letterboxes

• count forwards and backwards starting with different numbers, for example, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, then back again

• make patterns when counting forwards and backwards, for example 5, 10, 15, 20 then 20, 15, 10, 5 and 30, 40, 50, 60 or 12, 14, 16, 18 …

• do addition and subtraction problems by counting forwards or backwards in their heads, for example, 8 + 4, 16 – 3

Here’s a tip: being positive about mathematics is really important for your child’s learning even if you didn’t enjoy it or do well at it yourself at school.

Use easy, everyday activities

Involve your child in:

• sorting (washing, odd socks, toys, cans) while tidying up

• telling you what their favourite things are (food, sport, colour reading), notice and talk about numbers.

• ask questions about the pictures like “how many birds are there?”

• a shape and number search together wherever you are, like numbers of shoes, shapes of doors and windows.

Here’s a tip: mathematics is an important part of everyday life and there are lots of ways you can make it fun for your child.

YEAR 3

Talk together and have fun with numbers and patterns

Help your child to:

• find and connect numbers around your home and neighbourhood

• name the number that is 10 more or 10 less than before or after a number up to 100

• make patterns when counting in groups (skip counting) forwards and backwards, starting with different numbers (for example 13, 23, 33, 43…, …43, 33, 23, 13)

• try making different types of patterns by drumming, clapping, stamping, dancing or drawing patterns that repeat

• find out the ages of family or whānau members

• do addition and subtraction problems in their heads using facts to 20, for example, 10 + 4, 15 – 7

• use groups of 10 that add to 100 eg 50 + 50, 30 + 70.

Here’s a tip: being positive about mathematics is really important for your child’s learning, even if you didn’t enjoy it or do well at it yourself at school.

Use easy, everyday activities

Involve your child in:

• telling the time (o’clock. half past, quarter to)

• learning their 2, 5 and 10 times tables

• repeating and remembering telephone numbers they use a lot

• reading and sharing a book. Ask them questions about numbers in the story and use the number of pages as a way to practise number facts, too

• doing a shape and number search when you are reading a book or looking at art (such as carvings and sculpture)

• helping at the supermarket. Ask your child to get specific items (medium-sized tin of red beans, two litres of milk, 250g of mince).

Here’s a tip: talk a lot to your child while you are doing things together. Use the language that works best for you and your child.

YEAR 4

Talk together and have fun with numbers and patterns

Help your child to:

• find and connect numbers around your home and neighbourhood – phone numbers, clocks, letterboxes, road signs, signs showing distance

• count forwards and backwards (starting with numbers like 998, 999, 1,000, 1,001, 1,002 then back again)

• make patterns when counting – forwards and backwards, starting with different numbers (73, 83, 93, 103… or 118, 108, 98, 88…)

• explore patterns through drumming, clapping, stamping, dancing find out the ages and birth dates of family and whānau see patterns in the numbers in their times tables.

Here’s a tip: being positive about mathematics is really important for your child’s learning – even if you didn’t enjoy it or do well at it yourself at school.

Use easy, everyday activities

Involve your child in:

• making lunch or a meal for a party or a hui – make sandwiches in different shapes. Can they cut their sandwich in half? Can they cut the other sandwich in half a different way?

• helping at the supermarket – choose items to weigh – how many apples/bananas weigh a kilo? Look for the best buy between different makes of the same items (eg blocks of cheese) – check on the amount of sugar or salt per serving

• telling the time – o’clock, ½ , ¼ past

• deciding how much money you will need to put into the parking meter and what time you will need to be back before the meter expires

• thinking about how many telephone numbers they can remember – talk about what they do to help them remember the series of numbers

• reading together – help them look for numbers and mathematics ideas

• looking for shapes and numbers in newspapers, magazines, junk mail, art (like carvings and sculpture).

Here’s a tip: mathematics is an important part of everyday life and there are lots of ways you can make it fun for your child.

YEAR 5

Talk together and have fun with numbers and patterns

Help your child to:

• count forwards and backwards (starting with numbers like 10,098, 10,099, 10,100, 10,101 then back again)

• find and read large numbers in your environment eg nineteen thousand, three hundred and twenty-three

• learn number pairs to 100 eg 81 and what equals 100?

• read car number plates, look at the car’s odometer to see how far you’ve gone

• work out patterns – make codes from numbers.

Here’s a tip: being positive about mathematics is really important for your child’s learning – even if you didn’t enjoy it or do well at it yourself at school.

Use easy, everyday activities

Involve your child in:

• making and organising lunch or a meal for a party or a hui, including equal sharing of fruit/biscuits/sandwiches/drinks

• helping at the supermarket – choose items to weigh. Look for the best buy between different brands of the same items (breakfast cereal, spreads like jam or honey)

• practising times tables – check with your child or their teacher which times tables you could help your child with

• telling the time e.g., 5 past, 10 past, 20 past, ¼ to, 25 to…

Here’s a tip: mathematics is an important part of everyday life and there are lots of ways you can make it fun for your child.

YEAR 6

Talk together and have fun with numbers and patterns

Help your child:

• count forwards and backwards (starting with numbers like these fractions: ¼ , ½ , ¾ , 1, 1¼ , 1½ then back again)

• talk about large numbers in your environment e.g., computer game scores, distances

• talk about the phases of the moon and link these to the best times for fishing/planting

• talk about the patterns in the night sky – summer and winter. What changes and why?

• talk about graphs and tables that are in your local newspapers.

Here’s a tip: being positive about mathematics is really important for your child’s learning – even if you didn’t enjoy it or do well at it yourself at school.

Use easy, everyday activities

Involve your child in:

• making dinner at home, at camp or on a marae – look at how many and how much is needed for the people eating (potatoes, bok choy, carrots, sausages). Talk about fractions (half, quarter, fourth) to calculate how much to cook and cooking times

• helping at the supermarket – look for the best buy between different brands of the same item and different sizes of the same item (e.g., toilet paper, cans of spaghetti, bottles of milk)

• looking at the nutrition table on food labels – how much fat, sugar, salt – and deciding on the healthiest choice

• practising times tables – check with your child or their teacher which tables you could help them with.

YEAR 7-8

Talk together and have fun with numbers and patterns

Help your child to:

• talk about sales in town – 25% off, 30%, 10%, half price. Look for the best value and make a game of calculating the savings on items your child is interested in

• identify and describe how 2D shapes have been moved within kōwhaiwhai and tukutuku panels, and how 3D shapes have been moved in carvings

• budget pocket money and/or plan ahead to open a savings account. Talk about earning interest and investigate which bank account will give them the best return for their money

• talk about current prices for items that interest your child and investigate which store offers the best price.

Here’s a tip: being positive about mathematics is really important for your child’s learning – even if you didn’t enjoy it or do well at it yourself at school. Encourage your child to find out more about mathematics at the library and on the Internet.