ALL RESOURCES
LEARNING AT HOME
LEARNING IN SCHOOL
Welcome to Maths Without Limits!
- Guidance and resources for teachers and parents of children aged 7-13
- Incorporating all the photocopiable resources from the Maths Investigations website
- PLUS … engaging and innovative new slide show resources
- Created by a Primary Maths Specialist with over 30 years teaching experience
- Helping children to:
- explore new ideas with confidence and enthusiasm
- see mistakes as learning opportunities
- learn the skills to explain things to others
- and much more…
Teachers
Expected to work miracles with children who all need your individual attention?
Trying give each one the right level of challenge?
Wondering how you can do this in Maths, when skills and concepts need built step by step?
Parents
Unsure how best to help your child with Maths?
Wondering if it’s OK to show them how you were taught at school, or whether it will confuse them?
Feeling they’re not being challenged by what they’re learning and wondering how to stretch them?
I’ve been teaching Maths for longer than I care to remember, both as a Maths specialist in a variety of primary schools and as a private tutor. Over the years, I’ve found myself repeatedly addressing these questions with parents and teacher-colleagues and have developed a whole range of resources to help. My instinct has always been to set the bar high, and I’ve found that, whether children find Maths easy or difficult, they are often capable of far more than we think they are, if we can give them the right encouragement and support. I am now in the process of putting all my resources here, in one place, for the benefit of others. Please do sign up and enjoy them, so that you too can explore with your children Maths Without Limits.
What will I find here?
Photocopiable Resources
Open-ended, Guided Explorations
Much of mathematical learning can happen through guided exploration. These activities encourage children to work with others and with an adult to discover the wonder of Maths in a whole range of different contexts.
Example:
Populations
Investigate the populations of towns or countries and learn how to work out how many more people live in one town than another and how many times bigger one town is compared with another....
Practical Activities for Core Skills
These activities focus not on teaching rules but on building children’s understanding through practical materials and diagrams. This ensures that children learn not just how to do things, but why things work the way they do.
Example:
Upstairs Downstairs
Get things moving with this lively game which uses the space around the body to develop skills in doubling. Can also be used for halving.
Memorising Activities & Games
Knowing key facts like multiplication tables and number bonds is really important for building children’s confidence. The activities here are carefully designed to build their skills step by step so that secure learning takes place.
Example:
The Clock Rap
Make time fun with this highly popular game to help understand that times follow one another in sequence.
Interactive Slide Show Resources
With the increasing focus on sustainability, we are are all trying to reduce our printing budgets. These activities are predominantly worksheet-free and instead encourage children to draw and explore things from scratch on blank or squared paper, or on individual whiteboards.
Extended Explorations
These resources provide a wealth of material for both whole-class teaching and group working which can act as the backbone for a topic over a number of weeks. There is a particular focus on exploration through mathematical talk.
Example:
Fractions and Percentages Of and Off
In this extended exploration we use a metre stick or counting stick as a representation of the whole or 100%, and explore mental strategies for finding different fractions and percentages of an...
Mini Explorations
These shorter explorations are ideal for home learning. Each focuses on a single idea and encourages the child to explore it fully. ‘Together time’ slides at the start of each task encourage discussion with a parent before the child works alone.
Example:
Parallel and Perpendicular Lines
This activity introduces the concept of parallel and perpendicular lines. The children use spotty paper to draw their own lines. Once they have learned the concepts, the children play a talking...
Visual Skill Builders
To be really confident with Maths, children need to build up a bank of visual strategies which they can draw on to solve different problems. These activities each focus on a single visualisation and explore how it can be used for a particular skill.
Example:
Rectangle Diagram – Multiply Two Numbers
This is one of a series of visual skill builders which are designed to give children a toolkit of diagrams, words and phrases to help them explain their mathematical understanding and solve...
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do the resources come from?
Nearly all the resources on the site are activities I have carefully developed myself, for my own use and for my colleagues, over more than 25 years teaching in three different schools as a Primary Maths Specialist. They are tried, tested and unique, so you will not find them anywhere else.
Who are the activities for?
The activities have all been developed for primary and early secondary pupils. Some are mainly intended for use in the classroom. Others are designed so they can be used both in school and at home.
What topics are covered?
The resources cover the following topics.
What does it cost?
You can have access to everything, for a small annual subscription. For details follow the sign up link below