It’s time to get all the boxes out and try to sort them into types depending on their shape. Much can be done at home to help with 3-D shape work and children love to play with empty boxes; the bigger the better. It’s well worth collecting a store of boxes and much discussion can take place about them, including mathematical language of sides, edges etc.

These four pages look at matching shapes and finding the odd one out and would work really well at the same time as looking at real 3-D boxes. Don’t forget to look at the rest of our Shape and Measures pages which can be found tucked away in the Further Resources section. If you haven’t already got our 3 day trial then now’s the time.

Go to our resources on matching 3-D shapes

We have a great range of worksheets on ordering numbers from 0 to 10 as well as identifying the largest and smallest numbers. This set asks your child to either draw a circle round the truck on each row with the smallest number, or colour the truck with the smallest number. They will quickly get used to these important mathematical terms of comparison.

This is just one of a fantastic range of fun  maths activities which will quickly help your child become confident with number and enjoy their maths. Why not sign up now for completely free use of well over 1000 maths resources?

Go to our Resources on Smallest and Largest

A 1 to 100 number square is a very useful resource to help young children with addition and subtraction and there is one included at the end of this 4 page set of worksheets on addition.

All these pages concentrate on adding a single digit to a 2-digit number. Probably the easiest way to do these is to start with the larger number and count on in ones. Fingers, or the number square, are also great for assistance.

Make sure your child is really confident with adding single digits and has a good knowledge of counting up to 100 before attempting these pages, which are found in our ‘Superbrains’ section.

Go to our resources on addition of a single digit to a 2-digit number.

A simple but effective game which will help your child recognise the numbers from 1 to 5. Each fish has a number on it. Click on the correct fish to send the bubbles shooting out. Great for children starting to recognise numbers.

This is just one of a fantastic range of fun  maths activities which will quickly help your child become confident with number and enjoy their maths. Why not sign up now for completely free use of well over 1000 maths resources?

Go to our Maths Games on Counting and Matching up to 5

The fifth set of worksheets on 2D shape reinforces the earlier pages, looking at rectangles, triangles and circles. Whilst using these pages it is important to keep naming the shapes as well as asking what makes them that shape, ie the properties of the shape. All triangles have 3 sides, all rectangles have 4 sides etc.

Once again it can not be emphasised enough how important it is to have some practical apparatus – a box of plastic or card shapes is ideal. This gives children the chance to handle shapes and see first hand that if they rotate a shape it still remains the same shape. You would be surprised at the number of children who if they see a square positioned so that it is standing on a corner, or point, will not recognise it as a square and call it a diamond shape.

Go to our great 2D shape resources

Most children get plenty of practice at counting up to ten, but the numbers from 11 to 20 are often neglected. We have a great range of worksheets covering this for your child, including this set of four pages of Pirates footsteps in the sand.

This is just one of a fantastic range of fun  maths activities which will quickly help your child become confident with number and enjoy their maths. Why not sign up now for completely free use of well over 1000 maths resources?

Go to our Resources on Counting Above 10

Interestingly, the Primary Framework for Mathematics believes that 3D shape should be taught at the same time, if not sooner than, 2D shape. The probable reason for this is that in real life children are coming across 3D shapes all the time and will only see 2D shape occasionally in a book, or maths sheet!

These fun pages look at a variety of 3D shapes with the emphasis on comparing and matching them and to find the odd one out. No need to mention more complex names such as cuboid at this stage!

It is a good idea to have a collection of boxes, some of which are the same as each other and to look carefully at them, discuss their properties (e.g. how many sides, corners etc). Also take two boxes which are the same and turn one round and ask if they are still the same can produce interesting answers.

Go to our resources on 3D shape

Children love counting up and down, especially down to zero. Our rocket worksheets have a starting number and the next two numbers need completing as the count down commences! There is a number line to help, once again we keep to small numbers, five and below, but the count down won’t always reach zero. This is just one of a fantastic range of fun  maths activities which will quickly help your child become confident with number and enjoy their maths. Why not sign up now for completely free use of well over 1000 maths resources?

Go to our Resources on Counting Back

Here is the very latest in our Superbrains section for children who are comfortable with addition of single digits and are ready to work with larger numbers. There are four great, colourful worksheets on completing number sentences with answers up to 20.
There is a number line to 20 displayed on each page to help with counting on.
Some of the questions are trickier as they ask which number is needed to be added to make the given total. The easiest way to do this is by subtracting or counting down. Once again this shows the relationship between addition and subtraction.

Go to our resources on Adding in the Teens

Yes! we are rapidly moving towards another fascinating date.

On the 9th second of the 9th minute of the 9th hour of the 9th day of the 9th month of the 9th year the date will be:

09 09 09 09 09 09 .

To you and me that’s the 9th of September 2009.

Dates such as these are great starting points for mini investigations in maths: what will the next fun date be? How long before we can have the same sequence again? What other sequences could we have (remember you can only go up to 12 for the months) etc.