A focus on Learning, Collaboration & Improving Student Outcomes 

A sincere WELCOME to all our families in 2020.

I trust you were able to find some ‘down time’ to reflect on the past year and are looking forward to the many opportunities 2020 has to offer.

Mental Mathematics Strategies

When teachers talk about mental mathematics strategies they mean that children can think about the question in their head and give a way of working it out that holds meaning for the child about the numbers.

Examples of mental strategies include:

• Using ‘turn around facts “I know that 7+4=11 so 4+7=11”
• Bridging to ten “to add 8 and 6, I can add 2 more to the 8 to get to the 10 then I know 4 more =14”
• Near doubles “When adding 25+24 I can double 24 and add 1 to get 49”
• Compensation “to add 54+19 I can see the 19 as 20 get 74 then take 1 away to make 73”

Mental Strategies are introduced from about year 1 when children start learning about adding and subtracting. As children develop these different ways of solving problems they also learn ways to write them down and share their ideas with others. Once children have a range of ways to work our problems, then algorithms can be introduced in another way of recording (in short hand almost) what the solution is, generally for problems with large numbers.

Why should my child have to know other ways to solve problems if they can already use the algorithm?

The vertical algorithm is not formally introduced until Year 4, prior to this, the focus is on mental strategies. Mathematics is about patterns and being able to use apply basic ideas to solve much more complex problems. If a child only has the algorithm as a way to work out the answer, they will miss out on seeing the relationships between numbers and may not make connections across mathematics areas that are needed as a base for secondary mathematics.

A child may be able to solve these questions using an algorithm following the procedure and then they all find they have the same answer but they may have missed seeing the relationship between the questions in the process. Children who have strong mental strategies will have noted the ‘doubling and halving’ pattern of these examples, knowing the answers will be the same without having to solve them at all. Or may even know to continue the pattern to 96 x2 and solve that task instead of all the others. It is important to note that the algorithm is not ‘the highest’ strategy, even once children know how to use it, they shouldn’t stop using other strategies, thinking that mental strategies are less vaued. It is more about knowing when to choose and use the algorithm and when to choose an alternate strategy.

Practical ways to support your child’s menta strategies at home.

• Play games like Yahtzee@ or Scrabbletm where adding your total score mentally as you go is a focus of the game. Yahtzee@ is especially good for multiplication 
• During maths homework ask your child “how did you work it out?” What number did you start with?” Can you show me another way?” Even if you do not understand the mathematics, having your child explain what they are doing is useful. When children play ‘teacher; and try to teach you, they are building strong links in their maths knowledge.
• Work with your child to mentally work out the percentages while shopping. If there is an item for $60 with a 50% discount, ask them how to work it out. Do they relate 50% to half and see that you would get $30 off?

Helpful websites for parents

You might to explore these websites  to support you in talking with your chid about maths.

https://talkingmathwithkids.com/

https://mathbeforebed.com/

https://www.youcubed.org/resource/parent-resources/

https://nrich.maths.org/parents

With every best wish, 

Nikki Norley (Assistant Principal)