Fun math activities for 5year old

[MathsGeekMum]

DS loves maths. He is in reception at school and is currently working at a level 3c.
Does anyone have any ideas of fun maths things we could do together e.g. if he was into history we could go to museums or castles, or science we could go to a science exploratory. Is there a similar maths type experience?
Otherwise, are there any things that you do that involve maths that maybe he might enjoy? We already do baking so he can weigh out the ingredients, work out which are heavier lighter, best way to cut shapes out of pastry etc. He loves doing maths questions, but I'd like to extend him into applying that rather than just learning new topics, if that makes sense.
Thanks .

Our ds is a similar age and enjoys suduko. Download 4 or 6 number grids from activity village.

I suggest the website nrich

nrich.maths.org/frontpage

it has lots of interesting problems to stretch more able mathematicans. Alternatively you could introduce him to computer programming.

www.codecademy.com/

Data collection and producing bar charts, graphs etc.

I think this used to be done in Yr2, maybe was started in Yr1:

count and 'tally' interesting things when you are out on a walk: various traffic, cars, vans, buses, bikes etc; animals; birds; dogs; shops; colour of front doors down your road. Then place in order of most common to least common, and draw bar chart or picture-graph to represent your results.

Or he could 'interview' people about their favourite food, TV programme, favourite music; eye-colour; hair colour, etc. Again, represent results as a chart or graph.

'Squares' - on squared paper, draw the squares of simple numbers: 4 (2x2); 9 (3x3);
16 (4x4); 25 (5x5) and so on. Notice how the numbers increase more quickly than you might expect, although the 'square root' is only increasing by 1 each time.

Then superimpose around each other, with each new 'layer' having a different colour. If he has LOTS of square Lego bricks, it could be represented by bricks instead of drawing.

If he likes drawing and measuring, get him a pair of compasses, ruler, protractor, set squares, and see what shapes he can make.

Look on line for 'Fractals' which are fascinating to watch.

[I'll try to come back with more ideas sometime.]

Ooh lots of ideas - thanks!
I'm a programmer and hadn't even thought about teaching him to program .
He likes tally charts, as I realised when he produced one as we were counting birds for the RSPB bird count, so I think he'll enjoy asking surveys.

How about some 3-D things? e.g. building projects (there's a brick/cement set you can get or lego of course). Also how about setting up a weather station outside and recording data daily? And then there are model building things/sewing e.g. download plans for model boat/plane/dressing-up outfit, calculate required quantities of wood/fabric. Then there are time-orientated projects e.g. he could time how long it takes to get dressed, do his teeth, eat his breakfast every day and chart it/pop chart on fridge perhaps? Also, there must be some potential in observing movements of planets, comparing sizes of planets, distances from sun etc. Could you calculate volumes of cars going past the house, on the road, in your village/town, the proportion that are red vs yellow and gross up etc. to estimate most popular colours in the UK?

I have to admit I've never heard of a Year R child working to NC Level 3 (but I'm just a Mum). I think the first thing that comes to my mind is that your son should be on the school's gifted and talented register for maths.

next - I think you should be asking for the school to allow your son to join maths classes in upper year groups, so that he can maintain his interest/ enthusiasm for the subject.

If he likes video games there are a lot of free resources out there:

math champs: www.mathschamps.co.uk/#home

Cool Maths for Kids games: www.coolmath-games.com/

Woodlands Junior School maths zone: resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/

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The school may also have resources like Education City/ My Maths/ Mangah High maths - which have lots of games that the children can play at home (and often allows them to compete against other children - which some children really respond well to).

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In terms of simple things for L3 maths:

Have him calculate distance of car journeys/ train journeys - how much travelled and how much further to go. (use it as an opportunity to teach concept of miles per hour as well - and then discuss how much longer will the journey take).

We play a game with our girls (currently Y6/ Y4) where we give them a certain amount of money (say £5) and task them to get us all a snack for that amount.

Price compare at grocery stores. Is that 2 for 1 bargain really cheaper?

Division of things amongst friends/ family: So have him work out how many biscuits/ cup cakes/ etc... each person should get - if the food is shared out equally.

Proportion is a great thing to introduce through baking/ cooking. So talking about the ratio of dry ingredients in a cake: Flour to sugar or the ratio of ingredients in a juice or smoothie (3 apples : 1 mango). Juice making is a really fun way of experimenting.
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Finally it's always worth just searching about to see what's out there:

Ted Ed Lessons has a maths section - many will be way above your son's level right now - but not all: ed.ted.com/lessons?category=mathematics - for example Sponge Bob's House is not a pineapple: ed.ted.com/featured/7mw3qRSi by the amazing Vi Hart (now working for Khan Academy) or how many ways can a deck of 52 cards be arranged? ed.ted.com/lessons/how-many-ways-can-you-arrange-a-deck-of-cards-yannay-khaikin.

More Vi Hart math doodles videos: www.youtube.com/user/Vihart/videos - the fibonacci & food shape videos are good fun.

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I realise you are searching ways to apply maths - but I think you also need to consider whether the school will be supporting your son's higher ability going forward (or he'll be left to tread water - i.e. he's a clear Level 3 now, and the school's attitude mgiht be we don't teach above NC Level 3 until Year 3). Hopefully, your school isn't like that (ours is sadly) - but if so you may need to consider supporting maths learning at home.

Your son may respond well to tutorials like Khan academy (which is free) or subscription services like Maths Whizz/ Mathletics/ Maths Factor/ Komodo Maths/ etc... - many on mumsnet have discussed pros and cons of these services - but if the school is not being particularly supportive this may be a means of moving his maths learning forward in a relatively structured/ building blocks way.

HTH

I assume school must be aware of his ability if they have assessed him as a level 3 and I think it would be worth checking if he is level 3 on all of the areas or if there are some he isn't as strong on, he is obviously very ahead for his age but in terms of moving forwards it is probably very sensible to make sure he is developed in all areas rather than just his favourite bits of maths.

Our school wouldn't even notice if a child was working that far in advance of their age.

I think it was a bit of a surprise to the school - they knew he was a bit ahead so they had put him to work with year 1s which had given him access to some maths software they use in school and he had whizzed through the starting levels in a couple of weeks. It has him working at a 2a in some areas (like time) and 3c in the others (multiplication, division etc). The school said that meant he was working at the level of a good year 2 child, so next year they will put him to work with the year 2s.

These ideas are great, thank you all so much.

It's not exactly Maths but might be something a mathematically minded child could enjoy: Chess.

Similarly, mathematically minded people can be great musicians. Perhaps get him started on an instrument.

Like programming, which isn't exactly Maths either, these kind of activities can be lots of fun, and can help develop abilities related to Maths. They drive home the importance of precision - kids who are ahead in Maths at school might get sloppy due to being under challenged and bored. At the same time they won't be taking a child even more ahead in Maths than they are already. I think it's worth considering branching out into Maths-related things rather than focusing on Maths itself. If your child takes to it at all of course.

he is obviously at a good school then which is great. As I say our school wouldn't have a clue. our eldest has been coasting since starting school, I am not entirely sure she has actually learned anything in maths yet after 5 terms. It is something I am about to start querying quite loudly having tried a couple of times already.

You obviously know what you are doing, and I also was going to suggest learning an instrument, keyboard being the most obvious one.

I assume you know about the £25 Raspberry Pi, which several MN families have. It needs connecting to a monitor or screen, and a keyboard, but other than that it is a complete computer, running Linux I believe.

Music is a great idea! He might be slightly young for an instrument but if you can get him into a musicianship class he will learn all the basics for a couple of years and be off to a flying start. Learning about music and learning to play an instrument are 2 different skills and splitting them up makes a lot of sense to avoid frustration. Music is also great for creating connections between the left and right brain. In our house we rather tend towards the left/maths/logic brain and we have decided that encouraging activity solely towards might not be the best for our son. In our house I am conciously avoiding computer games/programming for as long as possible as these just do NOT help social skill development or being physically active.....

Definitely NOT too young to take up an instrument. Mine started at 5. Love it still.

I started piano at 4, I can't say I turned out to be very good (never did learn to read music very well) but I played for 10 years and I think it was a really valuable skill to learn at a young age.

don't know for sure but what about trying something like bowling, sounds bizarre but in a lot of sports (gymnastics I know in particular but I expect football, archery and others) angles are very important. sportspeople need to understand maths to be able to do the sport, they need to understand angles, forces etc and how to make minor adjustments. Chess is a classic strategical game for bright children to learn but why not find a slightly more sociable sport which requires an understanding of maths to be able to do it. Putting him outside his comfort zone a little bit might be very useful at this age too.