Little River School
MATHEMATICS
What is mathematics and statistics about?
Kei hopu tōu ringa ki te aka tāepa,
engari kia mau ki te aka matua.
Mathematics is the exploration and use of patterns and relationships in quantities, space, and time.
Statistics is the exploration and use of patterns and relationships in data. These two disciplines are related but different ways of thinking and of solving problems. Both equip students with effective means for investigating, interpreting, explaining, and making sense of the world in which they live.
Mathematicians and statisticians use symbols, graphs, and diagrams to help them find and communicate patterns and relationships, and they create models to represent both real-life and hypothetical situations. These situations are drawn from a wide range of social, cultural, scientific, technological, health, environmental, and economic contexts.
As a way to enrich your child's learning, please take a look at these websites. The Ministry of Education has built a series of resources to assist parents support their child's learning. These resources are in English and fourteen other languages.
Children learn more when their parents and whanau are interested and involved.
There are many things we can do to support our children’s learning in mathematics by using the everyday experiences and resources that we find around the home.
One way to support maths learning is to notice the maths all around us.
Raising our children’s, and our own, awareness of maths helps them understand that it’s part of how the world is put together and how we can understand it. This can be as easy as noticing the odd and even numbers on letterboxes or looking for different shapes when we’re shopping like cubes, cylinders or spheres.
We all use numbers and measurement in our everyday lives, and it’s important to share this with our children.
When we share the maths that we use, it helps our children to understand that maths learning is an important part of living and working and that it has value.
You can ask your children to read the time, or measure ingredients when you’re cooking, or talk about how much petrol costs and how many litres it takes to fill up the car when you’re at the petrol station.
Or ask for their help when you’re looking through the weekly grocery fliers – get them to tell you what the best deals are.
Having a strong partnership between home and school helps children’s achievement.
It’s important to talk to your children’s teachers and support their school work by practice and homework.
You can do this by playing maths games and solving problems together or by simply asking: “How did you work that out?”
Another way we can support our children’s learning in mathematics is by building their confidence through giving them honest praise and encouragement.
A simple high five or a smile when they have figured something out or when they just keep on trying - it tells them that we think they are clever.
And most importantly it tells them that we think they are doing is worthwhile.