Hello, parents and pupils of Class 6/7!
Both of these activities are useful to raise and maintain the standard of basic numeracy and literacy for all members of our class: and you need this right now. Yes! You!
You can differentiate both activities – this means challenge, to whatever level you are at currently. Finally, it will prevent a drop in ability over the summer holidays.
So, please support these activities with just a few minutes per day on each. It is best to do small amounts – every day, when possible. This will provide a significant boost to your start in class 7 and 8.
No pressure – but you will be assessed on both of these, in September!
♦ Literacy
Spend a short amount of time daily, reading for meaning and understanding, over the Summer.
- Pick something like a short newspaper article, magazine article or page of a book – with a subject that might interest you.
- Read it and then explain to an adult or parent what you understood from the article. Then:
- Let the adult read it and ask for two pieces of feedback: one thing you understood from reading it, and one thing you missed. No criticism, of course! just feedback.
- As you progress, then try something less intrinsically interesting to you, such as a news or current affairs website; or a bigger or more advanced article, to push your reading further. You can judge this yourselves.
♦ Numeracy
Multiply two numbers together, showing working out on a piece of paper. This helps with 3 skills: multiplication tables, place value and addition. Do this for just 3 pairs of different numbers every day.
• Start at your highest but achievable level. As you improve, you must challenge yourself to improve with harder numbers. The times tables, in order of difficulty, are:
Easier 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 11;
Harder 4, 6, 9, 8, 7, 12.
• Always use different digits – no repeated digits if possible (to maximise learning).
• You can choose one of 3 methods (long multiplication, grid and kite methods. See below).
• When you do each one, check it immediately – with a calculator.
• If you find an error, look for the mistake and learn from it.
• As you get better at your level, gradually change the numbers to include the harder tables.
• If you have no grid paper, use lined paper turned on its side – see my examples above. This is to maintain place value. Reduces errors.
Good luck. Remember, it is only a few minutes each day. Mr McDonald