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What your child will learn in maths#
In Year 8, your child will:
- learn to connect maths and statistics, exploring patterns and differences
- clearly explain their ideas using maths language, symbols, and conventions
- represent ideas in different ways, such as using number lines to understand numbers or equations to recognise patterns
- figure out unknown values (like the size of angles) and use data to explore ideas and make predictions.
Good maths skills and a positive attitude towards learning maths will help your child in the future. These skills are important for solving problems and thinking creatively. Encourage your child to use the vocabulary they learn in maths class when talking about maths at home.
To earn a formal qualification, students need basic reading, writing, and maths skills. These essential skills will help them succeed in future study, work, and everyday life. Much of what they learn in Years 7 and 8 will be included in the numeracy co-requisite assessment.
Numbers#
Ideas to help at home
With your child, you could:
- budget pocket money and/or plan ahead to open a savings account or reach a savings target. Talk about earning interest and calculate what interest would be earned using different savings schemes
- play the 24 Game. Write 4 numbers (for example, 3, 4, 7, 10) and then challenge your child to use addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division to make 24. For example: (7−3) × (10−4) = 24.
Your child is learning to:
- explore prime and composite numbers, cube numbers, and prime factors
- round whole and decimal numbers and work with negative numbers
- convert between fractions, decimals, and percentages, multiply fractions and decimals by whole numbers, and solve percentage problems – for example, "if 75% is $45, what is the total?"
- add and subtract fractions with different denominators using equivalent fractions
- practise adding, subtracting, and multiplying decimals, focusing on estimating before calculating
- create and compare financial plans like savings, phone plans, and budgets, and calculate percentage discounts.
Words your child will be learning
Words include:
- benchmark fraction
- budget
- composite number
- cube number
- financial plan
- percentage increase or decrease
- powers of 10
- prime number.
Algebra#
Ideas to help at home
With your child, you could:
- Create a secret rule, like "multiply by 3 then add 2". Your child gives you a number, and you give the result. Can they figure out the rule?
- Use baking to explore a formula. For example, "if a recipe calls for 2 cups of flour to make 24 cookies, how much flour for 36 cookies?"
- try puzzles like sudoku or codecracker together, or create a code using letters or numbers and write a message in that code for someone else to crack.
Your child is learning to:
- write and solve equations with variables (letters used in place of numbers) – for example, in the equation 5m + 3 = 18, they find that m = 3
- identify number patterns that increase or decrease consistently and write equations to predict future numbers in a sequence – for example, in the pattern 2, 6, 14, 30, they follow the rule 2n + 2
- develop step-by-step methods to find patterns or describe a process, test and improve them, and use digital tools like spreadsheets to support their process.
Words your child will be learning
Words include:
- expand
- linear relationship
- rate of change
- substitute.
Measurement#
Ideas to help at home
With your child, you could:
- plan what proportion of their own, or their brother’s or sister’s, time should be spent on tasks (like homework, sleep, TV, sport, kapa haka) to make sure there’s time left for fun and family
- make a present or gift for someone using a scrapbook, quilting, doing tivaevae, collage, painting, carving, knitting, sewing or carpentry
- complete various quick tasks like stacking coins, folding paper airplanes or bouncing a ball while timing each activity with a stopwatch that displays milliseconds – after recording the times convert all measurements to a common unit (seconds or milliseconds) to properly rank the challenges from fastest to slowest.
Your child is learning to:
- estimate and accurately measure length, area, volume, weight, temperature, time, and angles, choosing the best tool and unit for each task
- convert units of time and volume as needed, including using milliseconds for time and square units for volume
- read and interpret schedules, charts, and other time-related information to solve problems about journeys
- investigate the perimeter, area, and volume of various shapes, including finding missing lengths in practical situations
- explore measurements like speed, using distance and time.
Words your child will be learning
Words include:
- millisecond
- square unit.
Geometry#
Ideas to help at home
With your child, you could:
- Make a small box or container to hold a present.
- Search around the house and backyard for different polygons. Talk about:
- "How many sides and angles?"
- "Are any sides parallel or equal in length?"
- "What types of angles does it have (acute, right, obtuse)?"
- "What is the specific name of this shape (isosceles triangle, rhombus)?”
- Look at a journey with the different layers of a digital map (for example, street view, satellite view).
Your child is learning to:
- describe triangles, quadrilaterals, and other polygons by looking at their sides, diagonals, and angles
- draw flat patterns (nets) that can be folded into different types of 3D shapes
- use map scales to convert distances on the map to real-world measurements, coordinate systems, compass directions, and describe turns.
Words your child will be learning
Words include:
- cross-section
- diagonal
- exterior angle
- grid reference
- invariant property.
Statistics#
Ideas to help at home
With your child, you could:
- investigate which supermarket offers the best deal on petrol (for example, 4 cents off a litre)
- pick a few favourite YouTube videos and track how their views increase over a week.
Your child is learning to explore and understand data by looking at real-life topics, such as issues in the local community. They will:
- investigate topics that matter to their community by asking questions that can be answered with data – for example, "what is the most popular way people travel to school?"
- learn how to gather data through surveys, research, and observations while considering fairness and ethics
- organise data visually in different ways to understand and describe trends, compare results to their predictions, and explain their findings
- look at other people's data and claims to see if they make sense and are supported by the evidence.
Words your child will be learning
Words include:
- distribution
- long-term trend
- multivariate data set
- time series.
Probability#
Ideas to help at home
With your child, you could:
- calculate the chance of their favourite team winning a tournament – investigate how many points they need and work out what their competitors need as well
- play games – find online games, card games or board games that use strategy.
Your child is learning to plan and carry out probability experiments using digital tools. They will:
- ask questions about chance, like "what’s the chance of rolling a double 6?"
- test chance-based situations, predict outcomes, and list possibilities systematically
- record results, create visual representations (charts and graphs), and compare experimental and theoretical probabilities
- learn about probability distributions (how likely each possible outcome is to happen)
- evaluate findings by comparing results with others and their initial predictions – in Years 7 and 8, they use evidence to justify their ideas.
Words your child will be learning
Words include:
- distribution
- misconception
- model
- random.
Resource#
Maths at home - Year 8 NZ Curriculum