What sort of maths does your year 1 child do?

[Coldtits]

I'm genuinely not being competative ... I am wondering if ds1 is getting the right level of work to do?

Certainly there is a lot more emphasis on trining for mental maths than written maths ie. So Coldtits, at our school we were specifically asked not to teach our children how to add by "carrying tens" until Year 3, as this then tended to mean that children didn't concentrate as well on the various other methods that they were being taught.

Our school also does timetables in year 1, though this continues to be drilled for a few years in any event. But by the end of year 1 all children will be expected to know timetables up to 10x10.

Ah, adding by carrying the tens, units, digits, etc. -- none of that is on the National Curriculum in Yr1. Great if your child can do it, but school is following NC, it's not what the children are doing; they need to pick up what the 'upper' groups are doing, which generally isn't time tables (which again OP's child can do, but may not be deemed relevant to which maths group he's in, iyswim).

Sorry that's not a lot of help -- can you go in and ask what the other groups are doing and try to target helping him learn those methods / tasks?

bloody hell my brain has really melted

I read this thread as "what sort of maths does your 1-year child do" and was thinking MATHS

dd is also doing maths similar to Hulababy's list. I think she has a good (not G&T) grasp of year 1 work. However, she would really struggle if she was asked to learn her 8 times tables!

I think they do chant counting in 2's, 5's and 10's. However, they do not "know" their 2, 5 or 10 times tables.

hmm.

ds1 has since told me he is in the hardest group for maths.... methinks he is an unreliable source of information! I'm going to let it slide until parents evening, I think, then see what the teacher is actually doing, as opposed to whatever ds1 decides is interesting to tell me

At Y1 stage there should be little emphasis on simply rote learning, which is what learning times tables generally is for example. The only rote learning is generally number bonds to 10.

By using number lines and squares young child are learning to understand what the numbers actually mean, where they appear in relation to one another, etc. Rote learning really can hinder this if you are not careful, as can teaching things in the "wrong" way. You need to know the techniues and methods your child's schiool is doing and take their lead.

It should be problem solving and learning techniques to solve problems, such as using number lines and number squares.

Adding is not done in columns. It is done by adding on, jumping in 10s, then adding units, etc. Ditto subtraction.

Numbers are divided into tens and units, but agin not column wise. It is all done horizontally.

I am really puzzled as to why some Y1 classes are learning timestables. It is not on the curriculum at this stage and not related to topics being covered. I wuld be questioning, ion an educational point of view, why they are making young children rote learn tables and have tests on them. What benefit at this stage do they really see and is it helping the children to knwo what they need to know, and to understand the processes and methods behind it all?

I actually think the 'modern' way of teaching Maths is fab: children really seem to fully grasp the concepts behind the numbers. Not just do the appropriate crunching to make the magic answer appear.

I think it's a much better system for children of all ability levels.

A lot of what Hulababy describes as work yr1 should be doing ie number lines adding 10's splitting into tens and units, they covered last year. My dd's class are all doing column addition and subtraction up to 100. They also do a lot of problem solving ie word questions and they have to work the sum out. Also do a lot of basic graph problems and time relating to 24hr clock.

Goodness me I'm so glad that my dd doesn't have to do all this stuff yet. She is only 5, I think covering the stuff that Hulababy describes plenty.

I'm from Germany and at my dd's age I hadn't even started school yet, couldn't write a single number. Don't think it did me any harm.

Hula, it is rote learning, but it seems to be almost easier for them to learn by rote at this stage. And it means that by Year 2/3 they whizz through lots of the curriculum in those years - multiplication, division, fractions etc are very easy if you know your tables. It is also used as another tool in terms of mental maths.

That said I don't think that it is essnential that they know their tables by Year 1 by any stretch. But by starting early they seem to have cracked them by the styarty of year 3 whereas I've seen older children still struggling in year 5.

My problem with rote learning is that often by doing this they miss out the very importnt part of actually understanding what they are doing - how it works and why. This is far more importnt than being able to regurgitate number facts.

I would be concerned about a school that is having children do all the Y1 work in receptions imply as reception is supposed to be learn through play, not learn by sitting and doing proper lessons.

But some schools do like to have children working very hard and doing stuff beyond what is supposed to be done - gets those SATs higher, etc.

And yes, learnign by rote at this stage is easier - like learning a song. Doesn't mean they actually understand what they are doign though and as has been shown from educational studies, in the past this has caused problems with mathematical understanding.

It's so interesting how schools differ on these things. Dd's school isn't doing any rote learning of tables at all in Y1. Counting up and backwards in 2's, 5's and 10's, working out addition and subtraction up to 13 etc. They seem to get very good results at the end of juniors though so I can't see it makes a huge difference? It's just a good inner city London state school, nothing fancy.

only just seen the updates on this . They're not rote learning. Obviously the school discourages this (though it's how I know mine ) They're doing them firstly in order then mixed up, and they're learning them as (eg in 4 times tables) 1 group of 4, 2 groups of 4 etc and they have to draw the groups in little circles to show their workings out. I gather their method will change a bit once they get a bit older (? next year?) (just like they're only just starting joined up writing but will be expected to do it all the time by next year). They have the times tables of the week (whichever they're on that week) for homework one or 2 nights and they have a test on Mondays.

They - well my dd and those i know of - definitely understand what they're doing, so no need to worry yourself/question about that!!!!

imaginaryfriend, it is really interesting how different it is at different schools. Amazing how different schools/co-ordinators/Heads have a different take on the framework! We do grouping in Y1, but the only reason the kids I have know the word multiplication is because we have split year groups. But then we also set for our maths, meaning we have children with different teachers for their maths lesson dependant on their level of ability.
Some are SO against this concept...IMO, it works really well, and allows those who need to extra support to get it, and those that are high fliers can continue to be stretched at the other end.
From a personal perspective, I do not like the 'modern' way of teaching maths, I find it makes the children more confused. The concept of adding on in order to take away (eg; 18-6, add up to the next tens, then take away the six and add on what you added on originally) is totally lost on the majority of kids I find. I find too, the emphasis is so much on number squares and number lines, but not as much on different manipulatives and being able to move things across the table. Thats how we did maths when I was a kid, and it worked a lot better!

Just want to back up Hula - am a Y1 teacher. Learning by rote is a false economy - you could teach a 3 year old an 8 times table through song but they wouldn;'t have the first clue as to what they were singing about.
Children at this age need to have a solid understanding of place value (how much a number is worth - 134= 100 + 30 + 4) before they tackle formal times table. There is no rush - it does all fall into place so children get a true understanding of number and not just reciting parrot like a list of sums.
Year one is far too young to be tackling concepts of this kind.

If they're a class of bright children who GET the concepts, then they're not too young.

I totally agree that learning by rote would be a daft skill to teach at any stage.

I guess it's all subjective in terms of how the school teaches (how fast etc - presumably a bigger class with very differing abiliities would mean a slower pace of learning overall?) but the initial list (which i do appreciate was just a simplified summary so not gospel) was mostly dealt with in Reception at our school.

Hmm - very interesting debate though (not that it was meant to start as one )

I have absolutely no idea what dd is doing! If I ask her she says 'Sums'.

agree with alittlebitshy.My dd and her friends fully understand place value as they worked on tens and units last year and have done hundreds and thousands this year. they have defitinetly not rote learnt as they have time table tests and also in problem solving maths my dd can read the question and say that's easy it's 4x5 etc or you share the 24 between 3 which is the same as dividing.

She has not learnt the modern maths way but has a solid understanding of numbers and borrowing ten and paying 1 back. They spent a lot of time with hands on aids and number lines last year which cemented their learning. This year the vast majority add up and take away to 20 in their head.

agree interesting to see how others are taught and learning