Curriculum Blog

Take Part and Make Maths Count - Friday 7th February 2020

Written by Laura Smith | Feb 4, 2020 3:02:46 PM

Since it launched 20 years ago, over 3,500 schools have got involved with Number Day and raised nearly £2 million and this money has been used to protect children from harm. Join thousands of schools for a mega maths-inspired fundraising day and raise money for the NSPCC. Whether you dedicate a day or an hour to being a maths maverick, every pound you raise counts towards our fight for every childhood.

Join them in celebrating 20 years of Number Day on Friday 7th February!

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Schools can register for a pack including:

  • resources you can use in class
  • fundraising tips and ideas to help pupils and teachers raise money
  • maths activities for children of all ages
  • printed posters to promote your event
  • access to teacher resources to keep children safe from harm, supporting your school's safeguarding.

LGfL has a range of resources that can complement your teaching of Number Day.

J2eToolsuite has a range of maths tools that can be used in class.  Why not get your students to use TtBlast Live? If you are a two or bigger form entry school perhaps the classes in Key Stage 2 could compete against each other? You could also see which pupil manages to win the most often and is the ultimate winner; perhaps all the class/year group winners could then go on to compete in a whole school assembly to see who the ultimate TtBlast Champion is.

You could also get your Year 2 and Year 6 children to practise in the SATsblast (mental arithmetic) and establish which maths topics they find most tricky. In J2Vote, they could conduct a school survey and then present the data in J2Data or you could use the J2Database to look at the examples (e.g the Titanic passenger list, Countries (area, population etc) or a dinosaur database all of which have been made by users). 

J2vote can be used to see what is the favourite number within the school or you can use j2measure to look at measuring distances from school e.g. how many places are within 5cm or 10 cm on a map from school? 

BusyThings have a huge range of maths games and quizzes that can be used from EYFS to KS2; use the curriculum browser or the search tool to find games related to Number to use with your class as we have only featured a few of the examples below:

Have fun testing children’s knowledge with Busy Things’ quizzes (over 60 available) – perfect as a front of class resource or for children to independently try to beat their previous scores! Teachers - you can assign quizzes too, giving great visibility of how children are progressing.

Miner Birds - Addition and Subtraction The popular Miner Birds suite has a wide variety of calculations customisable for children between the ages of 5 and 11. As with all the Miner Birds games, the aim is to be the first to collect twenty worms by correctly answering maths questions – so not only will children have fun practising their maths skills, they must also employ strategy and logical thinking to succeed!

Splash Dash Help children to improve their addition and subtraction skills with Splash Dash; starting with simple number sentences and progressing right up to 5 column addition and subtraction, the game can be played with children between the ages of 5 and 11.

The Busy Things Maths Resource Maker means you can make your own customised worksheets (including tens frames, counting and sequencing worksheets and even maths displays); this is easily found from the home page!

Maths at Home is a fantastic resource to share with parents the resource is designed to provide support for busy parents that wish to help their child with their mathematical development at home.  A video has been made for every single NC descriptor for the whole of KS1 and 2 as well as an overview video for Early Years. Each video is a snapshot of how many schools may teach the particular strand, and also provides examples of how parents could support their child at home.  Where appropriate, video content is reinforced with a selection of downloadable resources.

Maths at Home videos are designed to feel like they are taking place on a table at home, encouraging communication, conversation and lots of fun while working on them.  The video resources are designed to bring Maths to life, highlighting learning opportunities within cookery, play, decorating and gardening. Most importantly, they are designed to ignite conversations between children and parents and to make Maths a positive and enjoyable experience outside of school. It would be a great resource to highlight to parents on the day perhaps by inviting parents in for a special number assembly.

Maths in the Real World does exactly what its title suggests; it puts maths into real-world problems and contexts. The detailed differentiation and detailed lesson plans and resources ensure there is something for all ability levels. Some of the real-world topics covered in the resource include: Search and Rescue (with the HM Coastguard), Nutrition, Sporting Decisions, Round the World and Viral Contagion (this may be a bit too close to imitating real-life currently though!)

Other resources you may want to use:

BBC Bitesize has a wide selection of videos for both KS1 and KS2 to use on Number Day including learner guides and activities.

NRICH also have a range of games and activities for EYFS to Secondary that would be great to use on Number Day or to set as challenges for at home or through the school.

MathsBots.com from Jonathan Hall@StudyMaths are tools for maths teachers including 'GCSE Resources' and 'Manipulatives' (pictorial images to support the Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract CPA approach to the teaching of maths).

Mathlearningcenter.org (note the American spelling!) based on the visual models featured in Bridges in Mathematics.

I See Maths by Gareth Metcalfe has a great range of free and subscription resources. If you want to look for the free resources click on the "Free Resources" tab; the Early Years drop-down has a large bank of visual games.

Remember you can view case studies from schools about how they have used LGfL resources as part of the daily diet they offer their pupils. The case studies can be found on LGfL TV; included within the collection is "Maths Bootcamp" and the winners of the award for "The Use of J2e Toolsuite" explaining how they make the best use of this award-winning tool.

Please also remember we are delighted to be supporting Maths Week London, taking place 22-26 June 2020. Join in the celebration and register to take part by clicking here.

Visit the Maths Week London website to:

  • download a range of free resources
  • register to attend free events 
  • take part in the Maths Week London Contest
  • apply for funding to support your school take part in Maths Week London

Finally, whatever you are doing to celebrate Number Day 2020 - why not share with us on our Twitter feed or our Facebook page #NumberDay?