I always say I am a big believer in maths practice.  But I also like finding different ways for the kids to do the practice so it does not become predictable.  This past week we started using the Mental Maths Gym pages from Activity Village.  At the moment there are 6 different sets (each 5 pages long) and each with their own set of answers.

I started off by just printing out the first three sets with the idea of placing the pages into our Write and Wipe pockets so that the kids could use the pages more than once.

And it worked perfectly in the Write and Wipe pockets.

But my youngest has an excellent memory and after just doing the pages once he was remembering the order of the answers (so without looking at the sums he would know that on this page the answers were 5, 3 10 etc).

So we improvised a bit.  I cut the sums out into strips and I started mixing up the sums.

I also realised that if you cut the sums up into strips and you have younger kids, you could always fold some of the strips so that the sums are not as long (see up above).  Just an idea that might work with younger kids.

The strips actually worked well with both my kids. As they completed the sum they wrote the answer onto a piece of paper and then piled the strips of paper upside down for me.  That way when it was time for me to do a quick check all the sums where still in the correct order.

I like this idea for maths practice.  This week we are going to try some of the sums from set D which include multiplication and division.  And I may even try my folding idea as a way of using some of the harder sums with my youngest.

As I mentioned there are 6 different sets – labelled A, B, C, D, E and F – they start off easy with each set getting progressively hard – the first 3 sets are different combinations of addition and subtraction then the next 2 sets bring in multiplication and division and the last set includes fractions and percentages.

If you have an Activity Village membership (currently £15 for 12 months) and want some extra Maths practice have a look and see if these are suitable, we are definitely finding them useful.

The Write and Wipe pockets that we use are these one (we have been using the same set for over 3 years and they are still going strong) – Learning Resources Wipe Clean PocketsThis is NOT a review.  It is just one of the resources that we use as part of our home learning.

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