Starting Points for Mathematical Themes in the Primary School - Part Two

This series of booklets, produced by Shropshire Centre for Mathematics Education, provide teachers in primary schools with a range of practical starting points for investigative work in the classroom, allowing students to explore mathematical ideas.

Polyominoes

Offers opportunities to students that enrich and apply their understanding of concepts such as symmetry, tessellation, area and perimeter as well as providing a practical means to explore a variety of two and three dimensional problems and puzzles.

Probability

The activities in this booklet are designed to engage students in assessing the likelihood of events, both in the 'mathematical world' of numbers where chances may be calculated logically and/or through experimentation, as well as the 'physical world' where judgements may be more subjective.

Routes

Offers students the opportunity to create and explore patterns in number and shape in a variety of different situations using different items of equipment. The main purpose of the activities is to allow students to explore, create, examine and explain their own interpretations of their findings.

Squares

The square theme provides opportunities for students to explore pattern, area, symmetry and fractions as well as the obvious patterns derived from square numbers.

Early activities in this booklet are designed to allow students to discover the properties of a square and, as they explore the similarities and differences that squares have with other shapes, become aware of how squares fit into the world of shape.