To be confident teaching Mathematics in KS2 the teacher needs to be familiar with a range of equipment and practical resources for developing mathematical concepts. The equipment can range from computers and calculators to meter rulers and scales for measuring mass. Practical resources would include cubes, polygon tiles and number cards and fans.
In KS2, most of the practical equipment is used for measuring either distance, capacity, mass or time. It is also possible to use practical equipment to teach number and algebra effectively.
Distance: meter rules are used to measure the dimensions of a classroom such as the height and width of the windows and door. Trundle wheels are used to used to measure distances on the school play ground or courts. Children may be interested in understanding all the names and measures in the metric system. They can also find out which occupation/hobby uses which measure. (For example who uses decimetres to do their measuring in?) Children convert between metres and centimetres
Capacity: Beakers are used to measure the volume of liquids and different shaped flasks are used to investigate the rate at which liquids rise in a vessel. Children convert between litres and millilitres
Mass: Spring balences and Top Pan balances are used to measure the weight of objects. Conversion takes place between digital and non digital scales and children can convert between grams and kilograms
Time: Measured with digital stop watches. Children convert between seconds, minutes and hours. Time is taught with clock faces with moveable hands.
Practical resources are used to teach place value, such as a place value grid, digit cards, place value cards and number fans. It is important to choose the resource carefully to meet learners needs. For example if you are using place value cards and some children write the number 342 as 300402 - it may be that the resource you are using is confusing, rather than helping them. Use resources which mirror the mathematics of the topic you are teaching.
Polygon tiles are used to develop concepts of Symmetry, Tessellation and to construct 2D and 3D shapes eg. fitting Pentagons around Hexagons will produce a football shape
Board games and puzzles such as Connect Four, Guess Who, Chess, Drafts, Solitaire, Towers of Hanoi, and Stepping stones are used to encourage logical thinking and develop playing strategies. A recent initiative by the government has encouraged mathematics to be taught outside the classroom and many school playgrounds have snakes and ladders, 100 squares, target and co-ordinate grids painted on them.
Schools have also developed Mathematics Trails around their buildings and grounds where the children do a mixture of orienteering activities and investigative work on Symmetry, Area, Perimeter, Estimating and Measuring.
Data Handling activities involve traffic surveys, counting cars of a certain make,colour and age in the staff car-park. Activities in the classroom involve measuring children's height, shoe size and hand span and making conjectures such as children with large shoe sizes have large handspans. Data analysis is used at Christmas to look at how many christmas cards a class receives in the days running up to the Christmas holidays and at Easter to investigate how long a sugared egg can be kept in a childs mouth !!
ICT involving interactive whiteboards and class sets of wireless networked laptops are being increasingly used in schools. Control equipment such as "Turtles" are used when working with Logo to draw geometrical patterns. Mathematics software is used for revision, demonstrating mathematical ideas and techniques and for games to consolidate mathematical ideas. The National Numeracy strategy and many Local Education Authority websites provide games and puzzles to help teach mathematics
Calculators are used from Year 4 onwards in Primary Mathematics to help solve mathematical problems. However checking and estimating remains a key to effectively using this tool.
Data which pupils use is often linked to sports such as the Football League, Wimbledon, and the Open Golf competition. The Clothworkers company provides free topical applications for teaching mathematics. Data collection is often linked to the child's home such as the number of pets, the number of people who live in their homes or how the child comes to school.
Teachers need to be aware of the historical context of the work that they teach. They need to know the background and discoveries of some inspirational Mathematicians such as Archimedes, Euclid and Thales. There are also other mathematicians from many different cultures for children to learn from. The British Society for the History of Mathematics provides useful links to many historical websites. The History of Mathematics community on NCETM also has some good links