Listening to you, working for you Helping your child with mathematical reasoning at home March 2015

Listening to you, working for you www.bexley.gov.uk

Helping your child with mathematical reasoning at home

March 2015

www.bexley.gov.ukListening to you, working for you www.bexley.gov.ukListening to you, working for you www.bexley.gov.ukListening to you, working for you www.bexley.gov.uk

National Curriculum The national curriculum for mathematics

aims to ensure that all pupils: become fluent in the fundamentals of

mathematics, reason mathematically can solve problems


Development Matters EYFS Overlap in many aspects of the ‘Good Levels of

Development’

Thinking and reasoning skills are crucial to the characteristics of effective learning:

creating and thinking critically to communication and language, understanding and

speaking

Developed alongside the mathematics.


What is reasoning in mathematics? Reason mathematically in mathematics is:

following a line of enquiry,

conjecturing relationships and generalisations, developing an argument,

justification or proof using mathematical language.


Why should you help your child to reason?

Research by Nunes (2009) says that ‘ability to reason mathematically is the most important factor in a pupil’s success in mathematics…Such skills support deep and sustainable learning and enable pupils to make connections in mathematics’.


Creating and thinking critically at home Model being a thinker, showing that you don’t always

know, are curious and sometimes puzzled, and can think and find out

Encourage divergent thinking: what else is possible

Value questions, and many responses, without rushing towards answers too quickly.

Support your child’s interests over time, remind them of previous approaches and encourage them to make connections between their experiences


continued Model the creative process, showing your

thinking in as many possible ways forward Give reasons rather than directive ‘rules’ for

any limits on your child’s activities Be a sensitive conversational partner and

co-thinker Show and talk about strategies - how to do

things – include problem solving, thinking and learning.


Challenge your child to think and talk about their own learning process with questions such as:

How did you do that?

How else could you have done that?

What could you do when you are stuck on that?

Convince me you are correct.


Reasoning in stories


Toys


What do we have in common? What do we have in

common? Sort into group – no

more than two to start with

Tell you why they have sorted them that way (Identify characteristics of each set)


Animals


Family photos


Food


Puzzles and problems

Suduku


Games


Walking to school How shall we travel to school today? Why? Which route do you want to take? Why? Which will be the quickest? Which will be the

slowest?

Which car do you like? Why not this one? How are these cars similar? How are these cars different?


In the kitchen Which is more, 1.7kg of apples or 1007g of

apples? Which is more, 1.25kg of apples or 1025g of

apples? Decisions, decisions: which is the best

container to store a drink in? Which spoon would you eat soup with?

Why? Which piece of crockery would you eat a

piece of cake from? Why?


Getting dressed Get three items of clothing out that are

appropriate for different seasons. Which top would be best worn on a sunny

day? Which top would be best worn on a winter’s day? Why?

Decisions, decisions

Compare using size, colour

Use, material, parts and shape


What’s the time True or False? There are more hours in a

day than minutes in an hour. True or false? There are more days in

February than there is in March.


In the bath Explore: The taller the

container, the more water it holds.

Is it always true, sometimes true or never true.


What is the same? What is different?

What is the same and what is different about a:

Number line and a clock

Number line and a thermometer


Money problems How to Live Forever’ costs £5.50 plus VAT in

Waterstones or £6.60 minus a 10% discount in WHS. Which shop is it the cheapest in?

The smaller the coin the lesser the value?


True or False

Odd + odd + odd = odd

When adding 4 numbers, it doesn’t matter which order I add them up in.

If I start at the number 2 and count in 4’s I will say the number 32


Sometimes, always or never

Multiplication always makes things bigger

Can you think of any multiplication you could do that would not make your starting number bigger?

What happens if you multiply by a negative number?


Sometimes, always or never

When you multiply a number by ten you add a zero?


Times tables Explore the

relationships between the different times tables for example 3 and 6, 4 and 8

Always true, sometimes true, never true?

9 x tables – digits add up to 9.

Is 153 in the 9 times table?


Any questions?

Documents

Listening to you, working for you Helping your child with mathematical reasoning at home March 2015