June 22nd 2015 - Maths makes sense

June 22nd 2015 - Maths makes sense

Errrrrr no it doesn't!

The parents of year 5 children were invited into school this morning for a maths lesson, so we can try and understand more of the new system that is being taught in schools now, it's called maths makes sense.   It has been designed  as a new and improved way of teaching maths to kids.  I personally think the old way is easier, and so does my 9yr old.

Todays lesson started with the kids (and parents) reciting the 9x tables forward (I just about managed) and then backwards (not a chance).  Then they did the divisional sums of 9 as well.  They then moved onto DP - the teacher had to explain to us that this was "daily practice" and in pairs they each do some of the sums and help each other with the answers and discuss how they got it etc if they have different answers.  The next part of the lesson was a dog made from cubes and they had to work out how many cubes it was made from and write out the "maths story" (sum of how they got answer) and then simplify it.  The next image showed the dogs head as a "double" and not just a simple add 1 more row etc but it had been lengthened, made wider and higher.  This confused my son who is usually very good at maths.  Some of the class had different answers and all were discussed.  From here they had to work out how many cubes would be needed for the body, I gave my son and his partner an answer and then had to explain to them how I had a different answer to them - they had only done it as 1 layer not doubled its height as well.  Once they realised this they got the same answer as me.  Finally it was to work out how many cubes for the legs using the same method.

At this point the parents half hour lesson was up and we all left the class, but the teacher said that they had another puzzle to work out.  My son said he would let me know tonight what it was.