Last week we celebrated a fun filled celebration of maths at St Peter's! Even the parents had fun completing the problem solving investigation sent home as a homework activity - thank you to those to submitted their answers!
The children in Primary 1 had lots of fun celebrating their first Maths Week at school. The children explored colours; they completed some colouring by numbers worksheets and also got to use their hands to mix paints to try to create new colours. As part of a PE lesson the children played games with coloured cones working in teams to gather up the correct colours. They met the number 6 and spent some time counting items to match the number 6 and the word six. The children worked on writing the number 6 correctly. Primary 2 children were equally as busy during Maths Week; they used peg boards to help them practice counting in 2's. They also learned how to play Snakes and Ladders correctly which was lots of fun and caused great excitement in the classroom. Primary 2 children were also using a Venn Diagram to sort items based on their colours and shapes.
During Maths Week the Primary 2/3 children completed a Maths Trail around the school. They counted the stairs and decided if numbers were odd or even. Some children managed to make up number sentences. The children enjoyed jumping on the odd and even numbers on the Snakes and Ladders in the playground. Some children noticed a pattern on the grid! The children then looked at car registration numbers and enjoyed adding them together finding the biggest and smallest numbers they could make. Pupils worked in small groups and there was lots of checking and rechecking additions. The fun started when they had to find a number plate that added to 10. This car left at dinner time so a child suggested what about the nearest number so thankfully there was a plate that added to 9. Pupils also played the Game 24, with P.2 playing a Maths Week Snakes and Ladders and Bones Game.
Primary 4 and 5 pupils enjoyed lots of different mental maths games including counting cowboys, Daily 10, Hit the Button and Buzz. During the week they explored how the calendar works and used many mathematical processes to create a 'Figure Me Out' poster using numbers to identify clues about themselves, e.g. shoe size, house number etc. Children also worked in teams to complete a Maths Trail around the school building. This was very competitive!! The class also took part in the online Zoom live Maths Week Quiz with the famous Franz Schlinden. They participated with over 500 classes throughout the nation of Ireland. Pupils also explored information about the famous mathematician, Alan Turing and learnt how his ability to decipher codes helped save many people during World War 2.
In Primary 6/7 pupils celebrated Maths Week with a range of activities and games. On Monday they had fun with fractions in class, looking at Mixed Numbers and Improper Fractions. On Tuesday they took part in ‘The Big Maths Quiz’ hosted by Maths Week Ireland and led by Franz Schlinden. This Quiz was a live event and required teamwork and problem solving as a group. On Wednesday the boys and girls continued on with fractions before taking part in a large KS2 Times Tables Kahoot in the Assembly Hall. On Friday pupils finished the week with some Maths TV Online, all the while embedding their knowledge with lots of practice on Mathletics in class and at home. As a fun estimation activity, children from Primary 1-3 guessed how many cubes were in a tub and Primary 4-7 pupils with a deeper cylindrical tub. There was such a variety of different answers but the closest answer in the first group was Arianna in Primary 2 and our Primary 5 pupil, Michael was exactly right for the larger tub! There were three winners in each yeargroup with prizes of a calculator, money bank and chocolate coins. Prizewinners were as follows: Primary 1: Shea, Daithi and Sophia Primary 2: Eva, Rose and Grace Primary 3: Evie, Sarah and Danny Primary 4: Erin, Caelin and Logan Primary 5: Caitlin, Alice and Eireann Primary 6: James, Sarah and Roise Primary 7: Grainne, Amelia and Cahir Thanks to all the pupils for their terrific participation in Maths Week 2023 and for making it such a success. Well done to our teachers and classroom assistants for planning and preparing such great activities alongside motivating and encouraging our pupils with their work!
