Teach-Primary-18.3

Although the maths curriculum focuses on fluency, reasoning and problem-solving, the need to prepare children for their times tables test often means that building their reasoning and problem-solving skills is overlooked, to allow time to develop number fluency and recall. NRICH’s activities are designed to enable your learners to become more fluent alongside developing their reasoning and problem-solving skills. In this lesson you’ll work through NRICH’s Shape Times Shape problem ( tinyurl.com/tp-NRICH ) to practise and develop some of these underused skills. 1 | ANY QUESTIONS? Bring the whole group together to share their questions and ideas. You might like to collate all contributions on the board without giving any response other than to thank pairs. Children might find it easiest to have numbered counters or cards available, so that they can physically form the calculations to check their reasoning. You can want support pupils’ recording by giving out a sheet showing each of the shapes. 2 | WORKING TOGETHER Once you have a full list of everyone’s thoughts, you can decide how you will address them as a class. Pass any questions back to the group as a whole: can any of the other children answer this query? Once you feel that everyone has a good understanding of the task, give more time for pairs to work on the solution. You might like to provide some copies of the calculations cut into strips, so that learners could move them around to group or sort them. Explain that when you bring everyone together again, you will be asking some pairs to share their reasoning at various stages of the problem-solving journey. As you circulate, listen out for clear reasoning, based on learners’ knowledge of number properties. You may wish to warn some pairs that you will be asking them to share their thinking with everyone later. START HERE MAIN LESSON WHAT THEY’LL LEARN l Times tables facts l Reasoning skills l How to think about finding a way to a solution l The idea of a symbol (in this case a shape) representing a number Maths Make sure all the children can see the Shape Times Shape worksheet ( tinyurl.com/ tp-NRICH ). You could display it on the board or give out copies of the printable sheet. Try to say very little as you introduce the task, just review what is stated on the problem itself and then give learners a few minutes to think on their own. Useful prompts to help get learners started could include: What can you tell from the first multiplication with three purple squares and a yellow semi-circle? Perhaps you can use what you now know to help you with another calculation? Invite pupils to talk with a partner and discuss their thoughts. This may involve asking questions or clarifying the task together, or it may be that they consider how to begin solving the problem. Colourful shapes and mystery numbers The NRICH maths team demonstrate an intriguing problem that requires reasoning and abstract thinking KS2 LESSON PLAN @nrichmaths nrichmaths.org 74 | www.teachwire.net