Category Archives: About Operation Maths

Welcome to the Operation Maths blog!

Category : About Operation Maths

The Operation Maths blog is a collection of articles offering support, guidance and tips for teachers, parents and families, whether they are Operation Maths users, or not. Many of the posts also contain links to other resources.

The posts fall into one of the following categories:

About Operation Maths: A series of posts, aimed at teachers unfamiliar with Operation Maths, that explore the programme in more detail, highlighting its rationale, purpose and features. 

Maths by Month: Posts which outline, on a month by month basis, the upcoming topics for that month, at each class level

Digging Deeper into… A series of posts, aimed at teachers, which delve deeper into the underlying mathematical concepts and pedagogy for each strand unit in the Primary Mathematics Curriculum (1999)

Dear Family: aimed at parents and families, supporting children’s mathematical development at home, these posts provide brief guides to understanding each of the topics, practical suggestions, and links to digital resources, organised according to approximate class level.

About Operation Maths

A series of posts, aimed at teachers unfamiliar with Operation Maths, that explore the programme in more detail, highlighting its rationale, purpose and features. 

Maths by Month

Posts which outline, on a month by month basis, the upcoming topics for that month, at each class level

Digging Deeper into…

A series of posts, aimed at teachers, which delve deeper into the underlying mathematical concepts and pedagogy for each strand unit in the Primary Mathematics Curriculum (1999)

Dear Family

Aimed at parents and families, supporting children’s mathematical development at home, these posts provide brief guides to understanding each of the topics, practical suggestions, and links to digital resources, organised according to approximate class level. New Dear Family posts coming soon!

Operation Maths Splash 1

Dear Family, your Operation Maths guide to Early Mathematical Activities (EMA)

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Category : About Operation Maths

Dear Family, given below is a brief guide to understanding the topic of Early Mathematical Activities (EMA) as well as some practical suggestions as to how you might support your children’s understanding at home. Also below, are a series of links to digital resources that will help both the children, and you, learn more about Early Mathematical Activities.

Junior Infants to Second Class
You can also find class specific tips at the back of your child’s Operation Maths At Home book

Understanding Early Mathematical Activities

Early Mathematical Activities is a strand in Primary Maths for children in junior infants only, although the activities can also suit children at the beginning of senior infants, as revision, as well as being suitable for many children in their final preschool year. The focus is on doing activities, that develop the child’s mathematical thinking, but that do not involve number or counting. The children will be:

  • identifying things that are the same, and things that are different
  • matching pairs of items that are identical and/or items that belong together
  • classifying (sorting) items into into groups that are identical and/or belong together
  • comparing items and sets of objects to determine which is larger or has more, and ordering objects according to to a certain criteria e.g. their length, size, weight etc.

All of these type of activities help prepare the children for later, similar activities, involving numbers and counting.

As mentioned, an essential skill is for the children to recognise objects and images that are the same and that are different. The objects may be completely identical in all features, or have the same colour but a different shape or size. The children will learn to match identical items (e.g. socks) and to match items that are different but belong together (e.g. fork and spoon). Later, the children will learn to sort items into different groups, depending on the purpose.

Practical Suggestions for Supporting Children

Most of the Early Mathematical Activities can be incorporated into the various tidying and sorting/organising activities that occur regularly around the home:

  • Putting away or sorting clothes. Ask your child:
    • ‘What items are identical (or exactly the same) and belong together in matching pairs?’ For example socks.
    • ‘What items are identical or exactly the same and but don’t belong together in matching pairs?’ For example any t-shirts, or jeans, or pieces of underwear that are identical.
    • ‘What items are not exactly the same, but do belong together?’ For example, a pyjama top and bottom set, a shorts and t-shirt set etc.
    • ‘What items are the same colour?’
    •  ‘What items are different from everything else?’
  • Sorting, for example, the drawer of kitchen utensils and/or cutlery:
    • Organise the contents into groups of items that are identical or exactly the same.
    • What items don’t belong in any group e.g. a large soup ladle or wooden spoon? These items are different.
    • Can you find any items that are similar, and do the same thing but do not look exactly the same? e.g. different types of spoons
    • Can you find items that are not the same but usually go/belong together? E.g. fork and knife
  • Tidying up the toy box or play room. Ask your child to suggest ways to sort the items into groups e.g.
    • Sort according to type: all the similar items together, e.g. books, cars, dolls etc
    • Sort according to colour: all the red items together, all the yellow items together
    • Sort according to size: all of the large items together, all of the small items together
    • Sort according to owner: all of each child’s toys together
    • Organise the Lego pieces; you might sort them according to colour, shape, size or purpose e.g. all the wheels together, all the doors and windows together, all the mini-figures together etc.
  • Identifying colours:
    • Pick up something and ask your child to find another one that is the same colour or a different colour.
    • Organise items into groups of the same colour. Ask your child to name the colour.
    • Ask your child to show you an example of items that are the same colour, but not exactly the same (i.e. different shades of the same colour), and to use the words dark and light to describe these colours e.g. light blue and dark (or navy) blue.
    • Play ‘I spy with my little eye something the colour of …..red’. Repeat with other colours.
  • Go on a walk outside. Ask your child if they can you find any items from nature that are identical or exactly the same? Can he/she find any items that are different?

Digital Resources for Early Mathematical Activities

Grade 5 Math - Online Enrichment ActivitiesHappy Numbers Pre-Kindergarten: Work through the activities from Module 1, Topic A and Topic B.

 

 

Reception Maths Tuesday 2nd June – St Michael's Church of England Primary Academy, HandsworthLet’s Compare: A comparing sizes game, including picking out the biggest, smallest, shortest etc

 

Sort Objects by Color - Practice with Fun Math WorksheetSplash Learn – Sort objects by colour: after this activity try Sort by Size and Sort pictures.

 

IXL - Same (Junior infants maths practice)ixl.com – Which are exactly the same? After this activity, try Different, Same or Different, Classify shapes by colour, Classify and sort by colour and Classify and sort by shape

 

Considering a new maths scheme? Choose Operation Maths!

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Category : About Operation Maths

For any schools and teachers considering a new maths program, Operation Maths is your one-stop shop:

Resource Books

Operation Maths is not just about teaching children to do maths; it is about teaching children to understand maths, in a deep and meaningful way.

It provides an all-round comprehensive maths program that is the most-teacher-friendly available, providing a full suite of long-term and short term plans, including plans for teachers in multi-grade situations. The plans are broken down into comprehensive guides to each topic, suggestions for maths stations and Aistear themes in the junior classes, as well as daily concept-by-concept suggestions in the senior classes.

It is also the most child-friendly program available, designed around incorporating engaging and playful activities that are based on a concrete, pictorial, abstract (or CPA) approach, which enable active participation and learning, while developing a better understanding of maths concepts and facilitating a seamless transition to second level.

It is a completely integrated print and digital package, with a suite of custom made eManipulatives (interactive tools), ready-to-go digital activities, videos, weblinks, scratch (coding) lessons and more!

The design of Operation Maths has been heavily influenced by some of the key maths pedagogies that are widely recognised as the most effective for teaching and learning, and/or which epitomise best practice in teaching maths, in those countries with a strong tradition of excelling in maths education. These key pedagogies include:

In schools where Operation Maths has been introduced, there is evidence that it has had a positive impact on the standardised test results at the end of the first year of implementation.

Since its launch in 2016, Operation Maths continues to evolve in response to the needs of its users. The Operation Maths blog, launched in 2017, continues to provide teachers, and most recently families and children, with information, suggestions and support. Its Digging Deeper into….. blog series (2017 to present), aimed at teachers, looks in-depth at the various primary maths topics, and provides suggestions of further helpful resources etc. Most recently, a new blog series entitled Dear Family (2020) was launched to provide families with a wealth of practical suggestions as to how they might help support their children’s learning in maths, as well as lists of up-to-date, recommended resources, available online.

To find out more about Operation Maths, please click on any of the links above.

To get samples please contact your local Edco representative

And if you are already a user of Operation Maths, please spread the word to your colleagues and friends in other schools! Míle buíochas!

Maths by Month – June (updated 2020)

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Category : About Operation Maths

The final month of the school year is almost upon us, and as usual, this heralds the last installment in this year’s series of posts designed to explore the Operation Maths topics on a month-by-month basis.

As teachers and families, around the country, continue to support children via distance learning, we have continued to roll out our latest series of posts entitled Dear Family. Each of these posts focuses on a specific maths topic, and provide practical suggestions as to how families can support their child’s learning, along with providing tried and tested links to useful digital resources. We hope that, in some small way, they may prove to be beneficial, both now, and in the future.

The posts in the Dear Family series published to date, focused on the topics of weight, capacity, 2-D shapes,  3-D objects, number sentences and equations, money and chance. Some of these topics also feature in the plans for this coming month (see below). The next Dear Family posts, currently in development, will focus on the topics of time, patterns and lines and angles.

HINT: To ensure you don’t miss out on any future Maths by Month or Dear Family 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 

Please feel free to share any of the Operation Maths blog posts with colleagues and members of your school community, including parents and families, whether they are Operation Maths users or not.

Book lists not finalised yet? Please consider Operation Maths, Number Facts, Bua na Cainte, Exploring Spelling, Let’s Talk Literacy, Explore with Me and My Learner ID. Click on the links for more information and to view sample pages from each program and/or contact your local Edco reps for samples.

Operation Maths for Junior Infants to Sixth Class:

  • Junior Infants: will be reinforcing their understanding of the numbers 0-5 via the topic of money.
  • Senior Infants: Further Counting and Numeration, Comparing and Ordering and Combining and Partitioning of numbers to 10; patterns (different arrays of the same number, colour patterns, number patterns, odd and even numbers); time (one-hour intervals).
  • First Class: Weight; Patterns; 3-D objects (in particular, connecting their understanding of 3-D objects to their understanding of 2-D shapes)
  • Second Class:  More Place Value to 199; Area; Lines and Angles (revisiting half turns and quarter turns)
  • Third to sixth classes: Operation Maths 3-6 is specifically structured so that the programme can be completed by the end of May, thus covering all of the topics in advance of the standardised testing.
    Depending on your own specific school circumstances, you may find yourself looking for inspiration to fill the maths lessons from now until the end of month. Whether you’re an Operation Maths user or not, there are a whole suite of suitable ideas on this blog post.

Operation Maths users can also access custom-made digital resources to support these topics. To access these resources, log into your account at www.edcolearning.ie, select the At School Book/Pupil’s Book for your class level. Then you can either:

  • Navigate to the relevant page in the book and click on the hyperlink to open up the specific activity for that page in a new tab.
  • Click on the Edco Resources icon (on book cover image on left-hand side) to open the list of all the digital resources associated with that book.

Other suggestions for June:

  • Maths outside: typically this is the time of the year when teachers are bringing their classes outdoors for learning. Since the children are at home, longing to get into the outdoors, why not encourage them to safely do some of these activities, with their families, while on their outdoor walks.
    • Outdoor Classroom Day 2020 was officially celebrated on May 21. If you missed this day, you can still access their resources with suggestions for all subject areas, including maths, https://outdoorclassroomday.com/.
    • Maths Around Us activity ideas in your Operation Maths book and/or the the Maths Around Us videos accessible at https://www.edcolearning.ie/

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 

Maths by Month – April (updated 2020)

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Category : About Operation Maths

A new month is just around the corner, and as usual, this heralds the latest installment in this series of posts designed to explore the Operation Maths topics on a month-by-month basis.

This installment, however, is coinciding with a very turbulent and uncertain time in national and global history, as teachers and families around the country explore how best to continue to support children’s learning.

To contribute to this effort in some small way, we have launched a new series of posts entitled Dear Family. Each of these posts, will focus on a specific maths topic, and provide practical suggestions as to how families can support their child’s learning, as well as links to useful digital resources. We hope that, in some small way, they may prove to be beneficial, both now, and in the future. The first post in the Dear Family series focuses on the topic of weight, which all of the classes from third to sixth are likely to encounter in their Operation Maths books this month. Please feel free to share this post with members of your school community, whether Operation Maths users or not.

HINT: To ensure you don’t miss out on any future Maths by Month or Dear Family 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:

Operation Maths users can also access a class specific, month-by-month list of relevant links and online resources via the Weblinks document, accessible on www.edcolearning.ie. 

  1. Log into your edcolearning account
  2. Click on the At School Book/Pupil’s Book for your class level.
  3. Click on the Edco Resources icon (on book cover image on left-hand side)
  4. Select Weblinks from list of categories and then click to download the document.
  • Also accessible on  www.edcolearning.ie.  are the custom-made digital resources to support these topics. These will all be viewable when you click on the Edco Resources icon as directed above.

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:

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 

Maths by Month – March (updated 2020)

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Category : About Operation Maths

Welcome to the March installment in this series of posts designed to explore the Operation Maths topics on a month-by-month basis, giving teachers greater insights into the concepts at hand, when they are most relevant.

While each monthly overview will specifically zone in on the Operation Maths topics for that particular month, the information and suggestions will be relevant to ALL primary teachers, whether they are Operation Maths users or not.

HINT: To ensure you don’t miss out on any future Maths by Month 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 

Pssst! The Edco Primary Publications launches for 2020 will be taking place around the country during March and April. As well as launching their new programmes, Litriú an Lae and My Learner ID, they will also be showcasing Explore with Me, Let’s Talk Literacy, Bua na Cainte, Operation Maths, Number Facts and other Edco publications. Click on the link above for more information and to register.

Operation Maths for Junior Infants to Sixth Class:

Teachers of Infants to Second Class: if you have not yet recorded the results of the Operation Maths End of February Assessments please 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.

Operation Maths users can also access a class specific, month-by-month list of relevant links and online resources via the Weblinks document, accessible on www.edcolearning.ie. 

  1. Log into your edcolearning account
  2. Click on the At School Book/Pupil’s Book for your class level.
  3. Click on the Edco Resources icon (on book cover image on left-hand side)
  4. Select Weblinks from list of categories and then click to download the document.
  • Also accessible on  www.edcolearning.ie.  are the custom-made digital resources to support these topics. These will all be viewable when you click on the Edco Resources icon as directed above.

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 March:

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 

Maths by Month – February (updated 2020)

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Category : About Operation Maths

Welcome to the February installment in this series of posts designed to explore the Operation Maths topics on a month-by-month basis, giving teachers greater insights into the concepts at hand, when they are most relevant.

While each monthly overview will specifically zone in on the Operation Maths topics for that particular month, the information and suggestions will be relevant to ALL primary teachers, whether they are Operation Maths users or not.

HINT: To ensure you don’t miss out on any future Maths by Month 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:

Teachers of Infants to Second Class: before you administer, score and record the results of the Operation Maths End of February Assessments please 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.

Operation Maths users can also access a class specific, month-by-month list of relevant links and online resources via the Weblinks document, accessible on www.edcolearning.ie. 

  1. Log into your edcolearning account
  2. Click on the At School Book/Pupil’s Book for your class level.
  3. Click on the Edco Resources icon (on book cover image on left-hand side)
  4. Select Weblinks from list of categories and then click to download the document.
  • Also accessible on  www.edcolearning.ie.  are the custom-made digital resources to support these topics. These will all be viewable when you click on the Edco Resources icon as directed above.

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 February:

  • Lá ‘Le Bríde, is Saturday February 1st. The story of St. Bridgid’s Cloak could be used as springboard into a pattern activity, or a discussion on exponential growth with older students.
  • Ireland’s first game in the 2020 Six Nations (against Scotland in the Aviva Stadium) is on Saturday 1st February. Some mathematical possibilities:
    • With older children, use the opportunity to explore the rugby union scoring system, and to identify what scores (up to 30, for example) are possible (how?) or impossible.
    • Calculate the number of games to be played; what if the competition had less or more teams, how many games would need to be played then?
    • Use the language of chance to discuss the possible outcomes for each nation in the competition and recognise that while it is impossible to predict the actual outcomes, we can use of knowledge of the teams performances to make informed predictions.
    • Calculate the dimensions of the pitch
    • Run a Fantasy Rugby League in your class
    • Make score predictions for each match and plot how these scores would be recorded on the Six Nations Table
  • Storytelling Week runs from 1-8 February. While this is primarily a UK based event, it does serve as a timely reminder of the rich role that mathematical stories can play in the early years.  For teachers of infants to second class, be sure to check out the Literacy suggestions within the Integration section of each short term plan in the TRB.
  • Valentine’s Day is Friday 14th February. Try out these themed problems  and challenges (suitable from first class up) from Mashup Math and, from the Routty Math Teacher, this selection of five Valentine’s Day-inspired starters, that are sure to engage your students and get them thinking critically about maths.
  • Pancake (Shrove) Tuesday is Tuesday 25th February. Recipes naturally provide great opportunities for real world maths, for example identifying the measures and amounts required, adding the correct measures to the mix, adapting the recipes to suit more or less people, etc. For more maths-related activities check out these pancake problems.

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 

Maths by Month – December (updated 2019)

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Category : About Operation Maths

Welcome to the fourth installment in this year’s series of posts designed to explore the Operation Maths topics on a month-by-month basis, giving teachers greater insights into the concepts at hand, when they are most relevant. While each monthly overview will specifically zone in on the Operation Maths topics for that particular month, the information and suggestions will be relevant to ALL primary teachers, whether they are Operation Maths users or not.

HINT: To ensure you don’t miss out on any future Maths by Month 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:

HINT: Teachers of Infants to Second Class – don’t forget to use the Operation Maths Assessment Records on excel for recording and collating the End of December Assessments

Operation Maths users can also access a class specific, month-by-month list of relevant links and online resources via the Weblinks document, accessible on www.edcolearning.ie. 

  1. Log into your edcolearning account
  2. Click on the At School Book/Pupil’s Book for your class level.
  3. Click on the Edco Resources icon (on book cover image on left-hand side)
  4. Select Weblinks from list of categories and then click to download the document.
  • Also accessible on  www.edcolearning.ie.  are the custom-made digital resources to support these topics. These will all be viewable when you click on the Edco Resources icon as directed above.

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 December:

  • This year, Computer Science Education Week runs from 9-15 December, during which time, they are also encouraging everybody, young and old, to engage with their annual Hour of Code event.  Coding is the future! Computers are changing every industry on the planet. Every 21st-century student should have the opportunity to build technology. Click on the links above to access Hour of Code and other computer science activities for learners of all ages. Operation Maths users can also access the tailor-made Operation Maths Scratch lessons on 
  • NRICH have recently launched their 2018 Primary Advent Calendar. They have lots of other Christmas-themed activities that can be accessed here: https://nrich.maths.org/public/search.php?search=christmas. They also have an Advent-themed sudoku challenge that some of the more-able senior class pupils might like to tackle.
  • Mash-up Maths have a Christmas-themed 12 Days of Holiday Math Challenges. Suitable for 1st class up, it might be better to hide all the puzzle initially. Then, reveal just one line at a time and ask the children to record and justify all the possible solutions based on what they know at that point. As they move through each line, they can then justify why they should now discard certain options. This is a better way to engage all of the children in thinking mathematically, rather than it just becoming a race to the solution (which can often turn-off those less mathematically-inclined). For more of this type of problem sign up to the Mash-up Maths weekly newsletter, to receive lots of other themed maths puzzles and challenges like this Grinch-themed challenge.
  • Interested in more Christmas-themed maths problems? From Dec 1-24 the German Maths Society posts a daily problem (in English) on its online Advent Calendar. There are 3 levels of difficulty, 4th class to adults.

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 

Operation Maths Assessment Records (infants to second class) on Excel

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Category : About Operation Maths

At Operation Maths we are constantly looking for ways to improve the usability of our programme, and to make it even more teacher-friendly. The most recent additions included long term plans for various combinations of multi-classes as well as excel versions of our Assessment Records. Following on from feedback from teachers, these include all the assessments for the entire school year, as well as incorporating extra features designed to make them even more teacher-friendly.

While there are already word versions of these assessment records available to download from Edco Learning, as well as the hard copy photocopiables in the Teacher’s Resource Books (TRBs), these excel versions provide teachers with a more efficient and flexible way to both record and analyse the results from the Assessment Booklets:

  • Quickly get a total attainment score for each child (Assessment of Learning)
  • Use these attainment scores to compare the attainment of various individuals and/or groups of children and identify children in need of further support (Assessment for Learning).
  • Quickly get a score for each learning outcome, use these scores to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the class as a whole, while also being able to identify which learning outcome(s) require further consolidation (Assessment for Learning).

And this is all achievable in a very teacher-friendly way:

  • Each of the five assessments ( eg End of October, End of December etc ) has a dedicated page; click the tab at the bottom to move between them.
  • Teachers need only enter the children’s names once only on the first page; the inbuilt formulas then copy these names to the other pages in the document.
  • Under each child’s name, the teacher can enter a score for each question (or page in junior infants); see more below for a suggested scoring system.
  • The score for each individual question (or page) will be automatically totalled (horizontally across bottom) to give an attainment score for each child.
  • When all the scores have been entered for each child, these will also be totalled along the right-hand side vertically to give a total for each learning outcome.
  • After the five assessment tabs, there is a tab entitled “All”. Here all the scores from each assessment will be automatically replicated, once entered on the original assessment tab. This allows the teacher to easily view all the data in one screen. The scores for each child will also be totalled here to give you an overall score.
  • Other useful information provided includes the specific strand and strand unit (S.SU) to which the learning outcome relates. These are abbreviated and a full explanation of the abbreviation is given on the last tab.
 

Suggested Scoring System

While teachers can devise and use any system which they prefer, one option would be to try the following:

  • 4 = Question answered fully and correctly
  • 3 = Question answered fully but without full accuracy ie almost all correct
  • 2 = Has a majority of correct responses but a number of errors also
  • 1 = Some correct responses but a majority of errors
  • 0 = Not attempted or incorrect responses

Obviously, teachers will have to apply any scoring system in a flexible way; for example if there is a question that requires just one response and is therefore is either correct or incorrect, then only 0 or 4 will be awarded.

Once the appropriate score has been entered for each question then the teacher will have:

  • a total attainment score for each child; the higher the score the more learning outcomes achieved.
  • the means to sort and/or compare the attainment of various individuals and/or groups of children using these total attainment scores and identify those children with the lowest scores as needing further support.
  • the means to to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the class as a whole by sorting/comparing the total scores for the learning outcomes, while also being able to identify which learning outcome(s) would benefit from further teaching.

 

Downloading and using

The excel documents for each class level are available to download by clicking on the links below:

Operation Maths Jnr Infants Assessment Record BETA

Operation Maths Snr Infants Assessment Record BETA

Operation Maths 1 Assessment Record BETA

Operation Maths 2 Assessment Record BETA

You may notice that these are still BETA versions only. This is because we would welcome more feedback on the usability of these documents.

Feedback can be left on this Edco Primary Maths facebook post or messaged to Edco Primary Maths.

Some questions you might consider answering:

  • Did you find the excel document(s) useful?
  • Did you find the scoring system useful?
  • What suggestions would you make to improve them?

We welcome all feedback!
And it doesn’t have to be specific to these assessment records. Remember, that if you have any suggestions or any questions on Operation Maths, Number Facts or anything related to primary maths, please PM or contact Edco Primary Maths via Facebook and/or Twitter 

Start as you mean to go on!

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Category : About Operation Maths

Tús maith leath na hoibre!

So it is with every maths lesson. It is recommended that each maths lesson should start with an oral and mental starter, which:

  • reinforces some previous learning; not only does this serve to consolidate understanding but, if the content is more familiar to the child, this builds confidence and encourages participation.
  • should be active so as to further encourage the participation of all children eg using activities that incorporate mini-white boards (MWBs) requires more children to be involved
  • should only last for about 5-15 minutes; it should not take over the main part of the lesson

Below are some suggestions for oral and mental starters, both for those who are Operation Maths users and for those who are not.

Operation Maths starters:

In the Teachers Resource Books there are recommended oral and mental starters, designed to consolidate prior learning and lead logically into the lesson that follows. It is suggested that this phase of the lesson lasts for 5-15 minutes.

  • In the junior end TRBs for infants to 2nd class, within the weekly breakdown of suggested activities to teach the topic, there are suggestions for whole class warm-ups  and oral activities (starters).
  • In the senior end TRBs for 3rd to 6th class, within the day-by-day breakdown for each lesson there is an oral and mental starter listed (see image below); this is then explained in more detail within the starters bank, a section of the TRB that follows the topic chapters. To view a sample, click on the link to download the Operation Maths 5 Starters Bank

HINT: While there are typically many suggestions given in the Operation Maths TRBs, it is not necessary to do all of them. If you find a starter that works particularly well, you could note this alongside the margin of your TRB, or in the notes section, to highlight it for future use. And, if you are working with more than one class (ie multi-class), use the starter suggestions from the class level that suits the ability of the majority of the room. 

Other Starters:

There are many other types of starter activities that can be used interchangeably with the starters in the Operation Maths TRBs so as to add further variety to lessons.

    • Number Talks (infants to sixth) is an excellent maths methodology,which promotes the development of number sense and mental calculation skills. The rationale behind Number Talks aligns itself very closely with the underlying principle of Operation Maths, i.e.  teaching children to understand maths, not just do maths. To find out more about number talks and to access a whole suite of ready-made resources for all class levels just click on the link above. To find out more about the overlaps between Number Talks and Operation Maths please read on here.
    • Same but different Math (infants to sixth) is a collection of fantastic images, arranged, in a very teacher-friendly way, according to topic. The teacher can pick out images relevant to the current topic, and suitable for the ability of the children and then ask them to come up with ways in which they are the same and also different. The children could use their MWBs in landscape layout, with a line drawn down the middle, on which to record points. Similar to this is Same or Different images
    • Splat! (first to sixth) from Steve Wyborney, is an engaging activity that helps build students number sense, while having math conversations. The difficulty increases from number bonds of ten through to multi variable equations. There is even a Fraction Splat! series. He also shares lots of free resources to aid implementation. Furthermore, a teacher could develop Splat! into a game/activity played in pairs or small groups, using concrete materials, where a child hides a number or quantity of objects/counters under Splats! (cut out pieces of card or fabric) for others in the groups to identify.
    • The Estimation Clipboard, (first to sixth) again from Steve Wyborney, encourages the children to look closely each time at set of four images, and to use what they have learnt from the initial images to refine their estimate for the latter images. Another number sense building activity on his site is Primary Tiles.
    • WODB (which one doesn’t belong), is based on four images/symbols/quantities, to which the children must give a reason for why one of them doesn’t belong. However, the content of the images has been deliberately chosen so that it could be argued that each one of the images doesn’t belong to the group! In this way, it encourages the children to think outside the box and appreciate that there is often more than one correct answer.
  • Thinking of a Number  (first to sixth class) is a simple but effective game to play with the whole class on the IWB as a starter. This is one possible way to use it:
      • Choose a number range that suits your class and click on three clouds to reveal their clues.
      • Ask the children (in pairs perhaps) to record all of the possible answers  on MWBs which are then revealed when called upon.
      • The children should look around the room to see if there are any possible answers given with which they do not agree (eg an even number written when one of the clues is that it’s an odd number) and to explain why they don’t agree.
      • Click on a fourth cloud to reveal the fourth clue; the children should X out all of the previous answers that can now be discarded and could be asked to explain why this is so.
      • Reveal the fifth clue; this should conclusively point at one actual answer. Again the children could be asked to explain why this is so.
      • On occasion, the actual answer may have already been identified by the fourth clue. In this case, ask the children to suggest what the fifth clue might be.
    • While Thinking of a Number is limited to whole numbers up to 100, once the children get the hang of the game they could be prompted to come up with five similar clues for a shape, measurement, fraction, decimal number etc. For more ideas on how to use this please check out this post here.
  • Bar Models are one of the three visual strategies for problem solving that are used and developed throughout the Operation Maths books for the senior end. While the children and the teacher are still less familiar with bar models, a great way to make your collective introduction to bar models much easier, is to use the Thinking Blocks site (which are based on bar models; suits second to sixth class) as an oral and mental starter. The teacher can display the Thinking Blocks site on the class IWB and to get the children to respond by drawing the bar models and/or giving answers on their MWBs.
  • Solve Me Mobiles are a fantastic suite of progressive puzzles that work as a lead-in to solving simple equations and variables in algebra. That said, these could be used from third class up (and perhaps even with  pupils in second class). Again, this tool will work well displayed on a class board and in conjunction with the pupil’s own MWBs. It also has the added advantage that the children can log-in  and use this site on a device at school or at home, so that their progress can be recorded and continued each time, rather than having to start from the beginning. Indeed, it would work well if the teacher sets up a generic account so that, even when using this with the whole class, they can pick up from where they left off.
  • That Quiz is an excellent assessment tool; it can also be used to generate a random selection of quick questions to which the children respond on their MWBs.
  • Operation Maths also includes useful Follow-on weblinks. Each follow-on weblink is author-approved and is linked to a specific topic and for a specific class level. As many of these are games, they could be used as a whole class starter (as well as for for consolidation and assessment) when displayed on the class IWB. The weblinks can also be printed for the children to take home and have fun practicing maths with their parents or guardians.

And if you exhaust all the ideas above there are some more suggestions on this list of Daily Routines and on this list of Useful Websites

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