Maths at Excalibur

I use what I learn at school when I am away from school. When I get my birthday money, I can work out what I can spend or how much I need to save to buy the toy that I want.

I have learnt about dates at school so when I look at my photo albums at home, I can figure out how many years ago something happened.

Maths helps me when I go shopping. I can add things up in the basket.

Maths is challenging and fun. 

I'm curious about maths.  I like that I can explain how I get to answers. 

Learning maths will help me to be a rocket scientist or a hairdresser.  Lots of careers need us to understand maths!

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Maths Day

26th March 2025

Our theme for Maths Day celebrated the exciting connection between maths, art, and creativity, while exploring how maths is used in everyday life. Both children and staff had a fantastic time! Take a look below at some of the brilliant learning and creativity that took place.

Year 1 used the outdoor environment to hunt for objects less than 6 cm, order sticks, count objects and draw clocks! They also used money to buy toppings and divided pizzas into halves and quarters!!

Year 3 children had an exciting Maths Day, starting with an Enterprise challenge where they raised money for charity through creative ideas and teamwork. They explored money-related themes using resources from the NatWest MoneySense website, learning valuable skills about budgeting and spending. In the afternoon, they got hands-on and crafty by making their own paper maths fidget called a Flextangle – combining creativity, maths, and a bit of fun folding!

 

Year 4 used money skills to plan and budget for a fundraising day for a chosen charity.

Year 5 learnt how to create curves from straight lines! All of the spirals and curves you can see in the pictures are created from drawing straight lines! The children had fun creating once they understood the method. They also took part in a workshop which focused on understanding the dangers of identity theft and fraud. As part of the session, they worked collaboratively to solve a fictional case in which a crime had been committed against a friend. This investigative element allowed them to apply critical thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving skills in a real-world context.

Maths 2024 - 2025

Preschool FS1

In Pre-school, we use ‘Master the Curriculum’ to support our learning of maths.  This term, we have looked closely at sorting and matching objects.  The children have recognised and named colours.  They have also recognised and created repeating patterns.  We have looked closely at numbers 1 and 2.  Every week, the children encounter a new number song or rhyme to enjoy.  Everyone loves to help act out the number song using counting props.  They swim away in ‘Five Little Ducks’, fly around the room for ‘Five Little Men’, or buy a cake in ‘Five Current Buns’.  This helps the children visually understand maths language, such as, taking away one and how many left.

Reception FS2

During the autumn term, Reception were developing their super subitising skills. It's our maths super power! We have been doing lots of noticing. We have been looking at how many we can spot without counting and how many smaller numbers we can see within larger numbers. We used pieces of pasta and scattered them onto paper. Then we looked to see if we could spot either 1, 2 or 3 pieces together and say how many there were, WITHOUT counting them.

We sorted objects such as buttons, pegs, natural objects and loose parts in different ways looking for those that matched and didn't match. We grouped them in different ways and talked about why we have grouped them. We also made repeating patterns with them.

We were shown a number that counted the corresponding number of autumn leaves and then the best bit. We got to throw them in the air!

After reading 'A Squash and a Squeeze' we made up our own little stories using the language of more, less and fewer.

Year 1

We have been very busy comparing capacity and using scales to compare weight.

Year 2

In our shape topic, we have been counting the number of sides and vertices...

Year 3

Year 3 have been practicing making quarter, half, three-quarter and whole turns in both clockwise and anticlockwise directions and in familiar contexts such as on a clock face or the points of a compass.
We then have started to visualise the starting and finishing points of the turn as two straight lines that meet at a point and that an angle is created at the point where these lines meet.

Year 4

Year 4 have been recapping full, half and quarter turns. We have done this by standing up and turning as instructed, including a variety of different turns both clockwise and anticlockwise. We then discussed the significance of clockwise and anticlockwise using the hands of a clock to demonstrate if needed. After this we explored different turns from different starting points, including using compass directions. Afterwards we looked what a pictorial representation of an angle looks like and how this relates to turns.

Year 5

This term, we have been learning about shape, position and direction, decimal numbers and negative numbers.

Year 6

During the summer term, four of our Year 6's took part in a national online maths challenge.  They successfully got through t the semi-finals after coming 28th out of nearly a hundred schools!  Even though they just missed out on the finals, they did extremely well and represented Excalibur brilliantly.