Targeting Mental Maths Year 5

Targeting Mental Maths Year 5

The developmen t of a variety of mental strategies helps to make children confident mat hematicians.

Students who can perform mathematical computations s wiftly and accurately in their heads are seen as being ¶ºgood at maths¶È . In general, poorer performing students use less efficient strategies a nd the development of mental computation through a strategy approach can help them move forwards. Research has shown that ¶ºafter instruction st udents seem more likely to use strategies that reflected number sense an d that this was a long-term change. ¶È (Markovits and Sowder, 1994)

The Year 5 Targeting Mental Maths book has been writ ten to complement the NSW Year 5 Targeting Maths Student Books trong>. The two-page weekly units run parallel to the contents in the st udent book. Units are divided into four terms of work and each term ends with a Revision Unit. There are 35 units in total.

A unit consis ts of two facing pages. The left-hand page has three groups of quick men tal exercises that constantly practise the necessary maths facts. The ri ght-hand page always starts with an explanation and practice of a mental strategy. This is followed by exercises that include work on space, mea surement, position, number, data, chance etc. The page concludes with a problem of the week.

Answer pages are in the centre of the book s o that the complete section can be easily pulled out and kept separate i f the teacher so wishes.

Targeting Mental Maths fulfills the need for easily accessible mental warm-ups, constant practi ce of maths facts, a useful homework book and further revision of a conc ept being taught.