​One of the class favourites this year is '5 Little Men in a Flying Saucer' (see above). We've also worked with:

• '5 Little Speckled Frogs'
• '1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Once I Caught a Fish Alive'
• '5 Little Monkeys'
• '10 Fat Sausages'

I've made drama/activity props for each of these songs, which has increased engagement and excitement about the activity. The '5 Little Men' activity has a flying saucer with (funnily enough!) 5 little alien men. Either individually or in small groups, children listen to the song, removing the men at the right time (when 'One man flew away'). 

I've also made full page aliens, which we use as a whole class. When we are acting out the song all together, the children sit in a circle, with 5 'aliens' standing outside the circle (with their alien pictures). As we sing, the 'aliens' walk around the outside of the circle, with one alien coming to sit inside the circle each time 'One man flew away'. This is such a fun way to reinforce early numbers to 5, and the children ask to play again and again! 

To solve this problem for multiplication Number Talks, I made multiplication dot cards for each of the times tables children need to memorise (1-12). I made sets showing (for example) '2 groups of x', as well as sets showing 'x groups of 2'. Both sets are important - while these 2 equations might give the same answer, they represent very different pictures! 

If you read my blog, you'll know that I love Number Talks. They are one of the best ways I know to help the children in your class develop number sense and confidence in talking about their mathematical reasoning. 

Once you start Number Talks with your class and establish them as part of your routine, you will find them easy and love them as well - I promise! But adding anything into a classroom routine is always a challenge, I know. 

As I've taught in different stages, I've made posters illustrating the  mental math strategies that children often use when solving addition equations during Number Talks. Since I posted the Early Years Number Talk starter pack, I thought some people might find these Posters useful. They also provide visual support for children (and possibly for teachers as well!) as a classroom Number Talk routine is being established. 

If you click on the links above, they will take you to Teachers Pay Teachers, where you can download the posters for FREE. I'm planning to slowly migrate some of the resources I offer to Teachers Pay Teachers. One thing I like about having my free resources on Teachers Pay Teachers is that they track how many times files are downloaded...something my current blog website doesn't seem to have the capacity to do. This will let me know which resources people find particularly useful and which resources maybe aren't so popular. 

I also have 2 daughters getting ready to leave for university in the fall, so I may be adding some paid resources in the future, as we try to cover their expenses for the next few years! But I'll keep offering lots of FREE things as well (I know how carefully teachers often need to budget....). 

Cards in this file will help your kids visualise larger numbers.

Please see my blog for a bit more detail (and some pictures of pages from the file itself) about how I use this resource. Number of the Day is a great routine for building mental maths skills, as well as incorporating a quick review of a variety of concepts into your daily maths block.

I wanted to start getting up a few resources (for those of you already planning ahead for next year). These maths tasks cards are set at three different levels. The 'e' (easy) level is addition within 10, mostly adding on 1, 2 or 3 more (the only exception is double 4). The mid-level challenge is also addition, but kids will be asked to bridge 10. The 'c' (challenging) level is mixed addition and subtraction, with kids bridging 20 in the addition problems.

There are 10 word problems in each set. With my kids, I used them during maths rotations when their group was with me. This was our first try with written word problems, so we took turns picking a card, reading it and solving it together on white boards. Something about cards and getting to choose a 'mystery' one makes problem solving more fun! I've tried to keep the words relatively simple to read, and there are pictures to help with trickier words like caterpillar and watermelon.

These cards can be used in a variety of different ways, though. With kids who are confident readers and used to problem solving, I'd post the task cards around the room. Then I'd give each kid a clipboard and recording sheet (or just their maths journal) and have them find the problems and solve them (something about walking around the room makes problem solving more fun as well). These would also make great 'fast finisher' cards, or they could be used for 'math journaling' - where pupils are asked to take one card and solve it in their maths journals, showing both the abstract equation and a picture representation of the problem (so if they were adding 4 caterpillars and 3 bees to find out how many bugs, they would draw the correct number of caterpillars and bees, along with writing the mathematical equation 4 + 3 = 7). When we worked on these together in our maths groups, I put out some fun buggy counters to help the kids who are still needing lots of concrete practice in their problem solving.

I'd love to hear how you use (or plan to use) these cards in your own classroom!