Maths
Here at Highfield Hall we encourage our children to investigate and explore in maths. We use lots of concrete resources and real-life experiences to enable children to fully engage in maths and understand the concepts they encounter. This is an approach recommended by maths specialists and consultants across the globe to enable children to fully understand key underlying principles. In this way we are ensuring children learn through understanding and experience.
"All our experience and what we learn from research indicate that learning based on understanding is more enduring, more psychologically satisfying and more useful in practice than learning based mainly on the rehearsal of recipes and routines low in meaningfulness." Derek Haylock and Ann Cockburn
Autumn 1
We have started Year 2 by checking what we can remember about 2 digit numbers- can we still read, understand and partition them? We read the numbers, made them with Dienes, partitioned them into tens and ones and explained what we did to a partner.
We then played a really fun game on the interactive white board to check we could identify a number made using Dienes. Here's a link so you can practise it at home too!
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/place-value-basketball
We did some reasoning around place value in groups. We had to sort cards into categories of 12, 21 or trash!
We really had to make sure we understood place value to answer. We explained to our friends and worked together.
Weight and Measure
Odd and even challenge
Autumn 2
This week we have been learning about arrays. We have been learning that an array is the picture that we draw to help us work out our times tables - showing the groups lined up in a rows and columns.
We first made our arrays with counters and then practiced finding the answers by counting up in known number facts e.g. twos/fives.
Arrays
Finding the answer to a multiplication using an array
Greater than / less than
The children have been learning about what the greater than and less than symbol means. They have been learning that it used when comparing numbers.
To to help the children understand which way around to draw the symbol we explained that the symbol looks a little bit like a crocodile - and the crocodile only likes to eat the bigger number. (Please see the video below).