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What your child will learn in maths#
Your child is learning to:
- use different methods to solve problems, including word problems and using tables, graphs, and diagrams
- understand how whole numbers relate to fractions and decimals
- understand concepts like angles, perimeter, and area
- explore patterns, shapes, and data.
Good maths skills and a positive view of themselves as maths learners will help your child in the future. Maths is important for solving problems and creative thinking.
Encourage your child to use the maths vocabulary they learn in class. This helps them develop a strong foundation in maths, making it easier to solve problems and think creatively.
Numbers#
Ideas to help at home
With your child, you could:
- Talk about large numbers in your environment, for example, computer game scores, distances or data storage.
- Plan and make dinner at home, at camp or on a marae. Look at how many and how much is needed for the people eating (potatoes, bok choy, carrots, sausages). Talk about multiplying ingredients for more people and calculating cooking times.
- Co-operate at the supermarket – look for the best buy between different brands of the same item and different sizes of the same item (for example, toilet paper, cans of spaghetti, bottles of milk).
- Play times table games.
Your child is learning about numbers, including to:
- work with factors and square numbers
- read, write, compare, and order numbers up to 1,000,000
- add and subtract whole numbers
- use estimation and rounding to check their calculations
- recall multiplication facts up to 10 × 10
- multiply multi-digit numbers like 54 × 112 and divide large numbers with remainders, like 198 ÷ 7
- learn the order of operations
- add and subtract decimals such as 3.45 + 15.33
- work with fractions like 1/4 + 2/8
- learn about percentages and how they relate to fractions and decimals
- create simple financial plans like budgets or shopping lists and calculate simple percentages for purchases.
Words your child will be learning
Words include:
- efficient
- inverse operation
- percentage
- simplest form
- square number
- thousandth.
Algebra#
Ideas to help at home
With your child, you could:
- Pick a simple everyday action, such as walking to the front door. Your child gives step-by-step instructions using clear choices. For example: "Take 2 steps forward and, if there is a wall in front, turn left. Otherwise, keep going." You act as a 'robot' and must only follow their exact instructions.
- Play a mystery number game. Think of a number and give your child clues using equations. For example, "I am thinking of a number. When I double it and add 3, I get 11. What is my number?"
Your child is learning to:
- use the idea of equality, when both sides of an equation are the same, like 3 + 5 = 8, and inequality, when 1 side is greater or smaller, like 5 × 3 < 20
- answer true or false statements and find missing numbers in equations
- find rules for patterns using tables, graphs, and diagrams
- develop step-by-step instructions (algorithms) to solve problems, like using a decision tree to sort shapes.
Words your child will be learning
Words include:
- constant
- equality, inequality
- linear pattern
- XY graph.
Measurement#
Ideas to help at home
With your child, you could:
- challenge them to estimate measurements of various objects, then verify with proper tools and calculate the difference
- let them measure ingredients for recipes, convert between cups and millilitres, and experiment with doubling or halving measurements
- talk about time in everyday situations, for instance, when driving ask, "if we left at 9.15am and arrive at 10.45am, how long was our trip?"
- plan a trip using a bus or train timetable.
Your child is learning to:
- measure and estimate length, weight, capacity, temperature, and time using the right tools and units
- measure and draw angles with a protractor
- use multiplication to find the area of rectangles and triangles, and the volume of cubes and rectangular prism
- convert units like millimetres to meters
- use decimals in measurements
- convert between time units, such as minutes to hours, and calculate the difference between times
- understand 12-hour clock time and 24-hour time.
Words your child will be learning
Words include:
- cubic centimetre, cubic metre
- protractor
- square centimetre, square metre.
Geometry#
Ideas to help at home
With your child, you could:
- search for real-life examples of different geometric shapes and take photos or draw what they find, unfold different shaped boxes and notice the shapes
- follow origami instructions to create shapes while learning about angles, symmetry, and geometric properties
- create a map with coordinates and geometric clues leading to a hidden treasure in your home or backyard.
Your child is learning to:
- understand shapes by describing and comparing 2D shapes (like different triangles) and 3D shapes (like prisms and pyramids) and look at the angles inside shapes
- transform shapes by creating and describing patterns that rotate (turn), reflect (flip), tessellate, and translate (slide) shapes
- read and create maps using grid references, directional language (north, south, east, west), measuring distances (in metres and kilometres) and turns (in degrees).
Words your child will be learning
Words include:
- centre of rotation
- clockwise, anticlockwise
- interior angle
- map scale
- right-angled, equilateral, isosceles, or scalene triangle
- tessellation.
Statistics#
Ideas to help at home
With your child, you could:
- count different types of vehicles passing your home during different time periods and then discuss patterns
- watch a sports game together and track simple statistics (shots taken, passes completed) and then compare that to official statistics online
- ask your child to track the family's device usage for a week and then create charts showing patterns and discuss findings.
Your child is learning to:
- ask and answer questions using data
- predict what the data will show
- investigate changes over time, like "how much will this bean plant grow over 10 days?"
- plan how to collect their own data
- check where the data comes from and make sure it is trustworthy
- organise data and look for mistakes
- create and describe graphs and charts to find patterns and trends
- compare their findings to their original predictions and what they already know
- check and improve how others collect and present data to avoid mistakes or misleading information.
Words your child will be learning
Words include:
- comparison or summary investigative question
- feature
- misleading
- mode
- primary or secondary data
- trend.
Probability#
Ideas to help at home
With your child, you could:
- predict patterns in coin flips – for example, “how often will you get 3 heads in a row in 20 flips?” and then test your predictions
- before playing a card game, discuss the chances of drawing specific cards, then track results during play.
Your child is learning to:
- explore situations involving chance, even when outcomes aren't equally likely
- ask questions, predict outcomes, and identify all possible outcomes – for example, "what is the chance of pulling out a red counter from a bag with 20 red and 25 blue counters"
- determine possible outcomes and do the experiment
- record the results, create charts to show the data and describe what the charts show
- compare their experiment’s findings with the expected probabilities
- calculate probabilities as fractions and use them to answer the question.
Words your child will be learning
Words include 'evidence'.
Resource#
Maths at home - Year 6 NZ Curriculum