Mathematics

Numbers, shapes and sizes take a centre space in the learning curriculum of Anglia School, in fact along with art and literacy, numeracy work is a skill which our children practice on a daily basis.

Here is an example of a numbers activity:

Family number pictures

Children paint / draw a family portrait to write an addition sentence in images which includes all the members of their family.

This activity comes from traditions for describing populations in ancient civilisations by drawing images on the bark of trees or painting pictures on animal skins and then counting the images to keep a record of the numbers of people. You may like to show some of the various hieroglyphs that exist as examples before the children get started on their own.



(the above is a page of Mayan script)

Get two children to stand up and ask the class how many of the class are standing up. Write the number on the board and ask the class if they can think of another way of showing this number. Tell the children about the method ancient civilizations used to count their numbers and tell them they are going to do something similar for their families.

Give each child a brown paper bag and tell them to tear a rectangular shape from it. Tell the children to scrunch up the paper to make it look older and more authentic. Get the children to draw or paint pictures to represent the people (and animals) in their family on the paper. Tell the children to count the numbers and write the total at the bottom of their picture.

Make a display with the family number pictures and the names of the children and have the children explain about the numbers in their families.