Maths by Month – April (updated 2022)

Welcome to the April installment of Maths by Month. Spring is well and truly in the air, and summer is just around the corner!

Edco Primary Maths and the Operation Maths blog are here to support teachers, schools and families, via:

• Dear Family, our ever-expanding series of posts, aimed at parents and families, supporting children’s mathematical development at home
• Digging Deeper, our series of posts, aimed at teachers, providing deeper insights into the underlying theory, approaches and pedagogies behind the various maths topics
• About Operation Maths posts, for teachers who want to find out more about the Operation Maths program itself.

HINT: To ensure you don’t miss out on any future blog-posts, please subscribe to the Operation Maths blog via email, on the top right hand of this page.
Another way to keep up to date an all new maths-related developments is to like/follow the Edco Primary Maths page on Facebook and/or Twitter 

Operation Maths for Junior Infants to Sixth Class:

• Junior Infants: Ordinal numbers (first, last), Comparing and Ordering and Combining and Partitioning amounts to up to five
• Senior Infants: Further consolidation of amounts to up to ten via Counting and Numeration, Comparing and Ordering and Combining and Partitioning; Capacity
• First Class: Time (hours, half hours and the calendar), 2-D shapes/Fractions (halves), Operations (addition and subtraction without renaming).
• Second Class: 2-D shapes, Capacity and 3-D objects and Angles
• Third class: Weight and Multiplication & Division
• Fourth class: Weight and Multiplication
• Fifth class: Weight, Number Theory and Rules and Properties
• Sixth class: Weight, Percentages and Rules and Properties

Teachers of Infants to Second Class: if you choose to administer the Operation Maths End of April Assessments, don’t forget to check out the Excel Record Spreadsheets to accompany the assessments in the Assessment Booklets; if you have any suggestions for how to improve these, please leave them here.

To access lists of relevant links and online resources, navigate towards the end of the relevant Dear Family posts, for a whole suite of suggestions, organised into approximate class levels.

Don’t forget that integrated with your digital Operation Maths pupil books, are numerous custom-made digital resources to support each maths topic. Just click any of the hyperlinks while viewing the digital book to bring you direct to the relevant resource.

TIP! If there are any digital resources for a particular page, they will also be briefly given and described in the footer of that page (both print and digital books). 

HINT: If you are new to Operation Maths this year or have changed class level, be sure to check out the Quick Start Guide to the Operation Maths books and the companion Quick Start Guide to the Operation Maths Digital Resources. Don’t forget that Operation Maths also has you covered for planning whether you’re teaching a single class or multi-class. 

Other suggestions for April:

• April Fool! There are 125 sheep and 5 dogs in a flock. How old is the shepherd? Would your students spot straight away that this is unsolvable or will they try to calculate an answer? Take a look at how some of Robert Kaplinsky’s students tried to attack this.
• Anthony from Mashup Math also has a selection of April Fool’s Day puzzles available from his blog, which could be shared with students at home.

We’re here to help! If you have any questions on Operation Maths, Number Facts or anything related to primary maths over the course of the school year, please PM or contact Edco Primary Maths via Facebook and/or Twitter