5 Minute Maths

Recently, I held a Maths workshop. I like it best when the children both design and run something like this. It gives them a sense of pride to show-off what they are learning and to be able to lead their family members in activities. I usually run these things as a 'drop-in', with no formal introduction or anything. The parents come in when they collect their children at the end of the day and their child leads them around. 

All of the activities here also make good warm-up activities for your Maths lessons. 

Here are some snaps from my most recent Year 5 Maths workshop:

Show me your way
This station shows different calculations for people to write how they would work it out. I use this as a starter activity quite regularly. It's a good way to get children to think about different strategies and how they suit different questions and to think about how to present their working out so someone else can see their method. 

Use what you know to find out what you don't know
Here, we were making a mindmap of derived facts. We worded this as 'Because I know 4 x 3 = 12, I also know...'. Some examples for this fact were 0.4 x 3 = 1.2, 40 x 30 = 1200, 8 x 6 = 24 (doubling all), 4/5 x 3 = 12/5=2 2/5, 12=4+4+4

Equivalences
We play this game a lot! When I use it as a starter, I give them a minute to think of as many as they can, either by themselves or using a Kagan structure, such as Rally Robin. All they have to do is put things of the same value between the equals signs. I give them a starting value, such as 2/5 and encourage them to think of different forms, e.g. equivalent fractions, calculations, decimals, words. 

e.g. 2/5 = 0.4 = 1/5 + 1/5 = 1/5 x 2 = 1 - 0.6 = 1 - 6/10 = 1 - 3/5 = 2 fifths

You get the idea. It's a great way to get them thinking about equivalences and to reinforce the fact that the equals sign means just that - equal to and does NOT mean the answer is. Right from Reception, we move the equals sign around to try to avoid this misconception in the first place. 

Timeline
Some Foundation Stage-style practical learning here - very simply, pin the dates onto the timeline. A chance to practice using a scale and estimating. This also happens to fit in beautifully with our World War 2 topic. 

What can you tell?
I LOVE this way of approaching data. In the past, I have seen my most able mathematicians rush straight to the question, take a quick glance at the graph or chart then write an incorrect answer before giving any time to looking at the graph and trying to work out what it is showing them. 
The way I am teaching it is to give them graphs, charts and tables with no questions. The task is merely to look at it and write down everything they can work out from it. This open-ended task self-differentiates and takes very little preparation. The speech-bubble post-its seem to make the world of difference to the children's enjoyment! 

Countdown
One of the children's favourites! I challenge my top group to write their working out in one calculation. As a starter, I use the IWB. For this workshop, I put out laptops. 
Although it's easy to make yourself, there's a super version on the NRICH website here, which is great, albeit very strangely organised. There's a fractions version, too! 

Ordering
Speaks for itself. Fun though! 

Enjoy!