Taking place on 23rd March 2024, World Maths Day gives schools the chance to celebrate all things numeracy. To help you and your class take part on the day, we’ve added up seven active learning ideas that will also teach children the real world value of maths.
1. Give your class some real-life maths homework
This can be a great way to show your class how much maths is involved in daily life at home. They could make charts based on sorting their laundry, work out how much cutlery to use when setting the table for their family or help their parents with the weekly shop. By getting them to report when they use maths in their daily lives, you can help children understand just how important it is.
2. Bring maths to life in a story
By taking part in one of now>press>play’s immersive KS1 and KS2 Experiences, you can put your pupils’ maths work into the context of an exciting story.
Whether it’s using fractions to save lives aboard the Titanic or solving a sinister crime through their SATs revision, children can learn to apply practical maths problem-solving skills in a unique learning adventure. Read our blog to find out how you can bring number bonds, decimals, mental maths and more to life.
3. Plan your next school trip together
Teach your KS2 pupils the value of money and budgeting by getting them to plan your next school trip. This could make for great group work, with children working together to present their ideal school trip to the class. You could even present to a member of SLT (or have a brave volunteer role-play as your headteacher).
Read our blog to find inspiration for creating immersive class trips for your pupils.
4. Play a game of Shape Bingo
Show younger learners how shapes appears all around us by asking them to find circles, rectangles and more around your classroom or school. You can use this to introduce EYFS children to 2D shapes, or KS1 pupils to 3D.
You can either create bingo cards yourself or use these free ready-made ones supplied by Tes.
5. Put on a maths bake sale
Following recipes is an easy way to help children learn about measurements, proportions and more. By hosting a bake sale with your class, you can combine the maths of baking with other practical learning such as money and stock counting. It can also be a great way to support a charity as part of your celebrations!
Why not use some of BBC Good Food’s 15 easy bakes for kids to inspire your pupils?
6. Survey your class or school
A classroom poll is a classic way to get some real-world data for creating graphs and charts. You could take this further by asking KS2 children to do some whole-school research and visit other classes to complete surveys of their choice. For greater depth or older learners, this can also be a great chance for some practical percentages or averages work.
Maths Is Fun have a brilliant step-by-step guide for children about creating surveys.
7. Make some maths-based artwork
Maths and art don’t seem too similar in the classroom — but they have more in common than you’d think! The Artsy Crafty Mom blog has a selection of activities using reflections, patterns and more to create fantastic pieces of art and show your class how maths can inspire their creativity.
We hope you enjoy taking part in World Maths Day with some of these ideas this year. To find out more about how now>press>play helps schools enrich learning across the curriculum, you can book a free trial on our website.
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