Y5 Maths homework - help, please

[PrettyCandles]

Could someone please explain this question:

Give both square roots of these numbers
4, 49, 121, 169

"Both" square roots?

Maybe it's a typo?

That would be the negatives as well wouldnt it? i.e. 2 and -2, 7 and -7?

Yes, must be a mistake.

BTM and Feenie: see me.
OR: gold star

It isnt a mistake.

square root of 49
means you need to search for two numbers under two conditions
1 - must be equal
2 - when multiply these two numbers the answer well be the number under the square root
there are values can be true they are
+7
and
-7
To check
+7 * +7 = 49
-7 * -7 = 49

(copied from yahoo but only because i couldnt be bothered typing it out!! )

senua - xposted!

A negative times a negative is always a positive.

That's way beyond Y5 though! (And me, obviously )

DS2 in Y5 immediately said 2 and -2 etc. He then said, "It must be a really good school if they get that for homework in Y5."

Yes, I also thought negative numbers, but then couldn't quite believe it. Multiplying negative numbers in Y5, when they've only just got to grips with column multiplication? It seemed improbable. Though the first question in the homework did mention -ve nos very briefly, but only in terms of subtraction.

Thanks.

Maybe it meant to say 'give both square and square roots of these numbers'?

DS2 thought it was improbable too. He knows it because he's interested in stuff like that, but he certainly hasn't done it at school.

DD is in yr 5 and didn't know about negative numbers.

DS1 is in yr 7 and also didn't. DD is a brainiac, DS1 less so but good at maths.

Hmmmm think it's tricky yr5 homework; have they actually covered this OP?

There are usually 5-6 questions in their maths homework, and they are expected to go as far as they can in the allotted half an hour, or to do as much more as they want if they are interested. So the last couple of questions are by way of extension. Ds usually does the lot. Sometimes he answers them independently, sometimes he asks dh or me for help, and it's rarely clear whether or not he has already covered it at school.

I'd guess that it's a sort of "ooh let's see if they can work this out" thing rather than a "they need to know this" thing IYSWIM.

Yes, I think you're right. Would be nice, though, if the school explained the system better to the parents and children.

Its not a problem for my dc: they like maths and it's definitely one of their strengths. But plenty of the parents are stressed because their dc couldn't mange the homework, or got upset about it. It's easy enough for the more able children to go as far as they like, and feel OK about stopping near the end, but very demoralising for a less able child to grind to a halt, IYSWIM. Especially when the parent doesn't realise that they don't have to the whole sheet, and is trying to get them to 'finish their homework'. And I'm not being patronising - it was exactly like this for us before dd got the hang of maths.

Absolutely. I really like the idea of having workshops for parents in the key subjects!

There is no way they would be expecting a Y5 to know about negatives WRT square numbers.

Unless they are on fast-track to GCSE in Y6?