A Flexible Approach to Calculating
A Flexible Approach to Calculating
The tasks in this feature are designed to encourage learners to make, and justify, decisions about the method they use to solve a calculation. If we give pupils opportunities to choose a method that is well suited to a particular calculation, they will become curious, adventurous mathematicians, and are more likely to be accurate compared with following a procedure without
reflecting first.
In this article for primary teachers, Ems outlines how we can encourage learners to be flexible in their approach to calculation, and why this is crucial.
Order these four calculations from easiest to hardest. How did you decide?
Which two items of fruit could Kate and Sam choose? Can you order the prices from lowest to highest?
Can you spot the mistake in this video? How would you work out the answer to this calculation?
Can you match these calculation methods to their visual representations?
Can you put these four calculations into order of difficulty? How did you decide?
Here is a chance to play a version of the classic Countdown Game.
Watch our videos of multiplication methods that you may not have met before. Can you make sense of them?