Since October, Class 1 have been learning about the Quality of Numbers. What does the number “1” mean to us? Is it a small number or a large quantity? If we have 1 cake to ourselves that is larger than splitting it into 2 and sharing it! We have been following the song One for the Golden Sun in our learning about the numbers up to 10. We have even explored the concept of zero, with a new Kingdom (called Mathema), where at first nothing lived. There was darkness and emptiness. Out of that, life started to appear, and with life, ordering. As well as the order of numbers, we have explored the patterns of numbers. For example, what does it mean for a number to be odd or even? What does this look like? The concept of “odd one out” has also informed our social stories for the class in terms to friendships.
Another pattern we have explored is the Friends of 10. Class 1 have enjoyed a story about a storm in Mathema that swept away all the house numbers in the town. The Friends of 10 now have to knock on each door to try and find if their friend lives there. Once again, deepening their knowledge of maths through activity, story, tangible and pictorial representation.
Our journey through Mathema Kingdom led Class 1 to Calculation Castle. We first met Emperor Equals in the marketplace outside; he was making the trade fair between different vendors. For instance, one farmer wanted to trade 1 group of 5 apples and another group of 7 oranges for 12 freshly baked rolls from the baker. We had to make sure Emperor Equals was happy, i.e. that our sums were balanced. We even created a coat hanger and jam jar weighing scale to help!
Class 1 also helped Adam Add the Builder build one of the castle walls at Calculation Castle. Our wall was a number wall, made up of bricks from 1 to 100. Each child took ownership over one column. Now we can use this number wall for our addition and subtraction sums. Just this week we met our final character for this half term: Tanya Takeaway. Tanya Takeaway helps the King and Queen of Mathema to be more generous, taking away their riches to give to the poor.
All in all, we have had quite an adventure in Mathema this term! We all feel more confident with our maths now, so we can help out our friends in need with solving problems.
