Ask adults about maths and they'll often say: “I was never very good at maths at school”. How can we stop young children growing up today saying the same thing?
It’s important to be inventive when teaching children maths in primary school, in order to get them hooked early and want to keep doing more maths when they get home. In art and English lessons it’s easy for children to have ownership – “this is my piece of art” or “these are my thoughts in this essay”. It might seem that in maths this is harder to do, if not impossible. But ownership of maths is important so that children and adults can also say – “this is my maths”.
One way to develop ownership is to take children on a “maths walk”, opening their eyes up to the world around them. It’s like a treasure hunt, with the treasures hidden all around us waiting to be observed.
Going on a Maths Walk
A typical walk consists of a sequence of designated sites along a planned route where students stop to explore maths in the environment. This makes maths come alive for children.
