Numeracy 3-6
Helping Your Child Develop Their Numeracy Skills
Maths will be part of every child’s educational journey each year of their schooling, from kindergarten through to graduation. Discover resources, tips and tricks to help you navigate your child's maths education journey from Kindy to year 6.
Battleship
Battleship is a game that relies heavily on position and strategic thinking. Challenge your child or get them to challenge their friends to see who is the champion of position.
Cooking
Children can:
Investigate the units of measurement for items in the pantry or refrigerator
Cut the sandwich in half: “Can you cut the sandwich in half creating a different shape?”
Mix a drink for the family: e.g. measuring cordial, fruit and water
Estimate how much each item weighs, then check how close the estimates are
Find the time we start cooking the rice so that our food is ready to be served at the same time?
Change a recipe that serves 6 for 4 people (or 6 for 3 people for lower levels). How much of each ingredient will we need?
Be a junior Masterchef: e.g. measure and weigh ingredients, apply ratio, consider cooking time, and serve portion sizes
Are we there yet?
Children can:
Collect important dates and mark them on a calendar
Time how long does it take us to travel to school
Estimate how far you’ve travelled, the distance to your destination, and how long it is going to take
Find the arrival time: e.g. If it is 4:38 pm now and it will take us 15 minutes to get there
Enter dates into a digital calendar: e.g., identify the day of the week, the time between dates and set reminders
Help you to make a travel plan using timetables
Read the public transport maps to follow along with each stop
Shopping
Children can:
Estimate the total cost of your supermarket purchase
Estimate and weigh the fruit and vegetables;
Compare two items for the best value for moneyDiscuss if an item on “special” is really that special
Find specific items (e.g., medium-sized tin of red beans, 2 litres of milk, 250g of mince)
Find how many apples/bananas will weigh a kilogram
Look for the best buy between different brands of the same item then different sizes of the same item
Cut items from shopping brochures that add to different values
Estimate how many bags you will need to carry your grocery shop
Disassemble a package to create a two-dimensional net
Compare packaging sizes for a litre and a kilogram
Out and About
Children can:
Go on a numeracy walk, to look for numbers or shapes, to count objects, compare sizes of objects; and look for patterns in the environment. Be asked to decide what to will look for
Pack for a trip or help loading the boot. What will fit?
Measure everything! “How far can you jump?” “How long is the desk?” “How tall are you?” “How tall is the dog?”
Compare steps, paces and hand spans with metric units of length
Find and read large numbers in the local environment
Explore online maps, sat navigational directions for planning a trip
Look at architecture and buildings: shapes, symmetry, patterns, size and proportion
Read car and house prices in car yards and real estate agents’ windows
When driving, spot number plates with the number zero on them. Change the number to 1 when they have spotted five car number plates with the number zero. Work their way up to the number 9. Spot number plates with digits that equal 10, 20, 55, 17 using different operations (+ – x ÷ )
