This is part four (Year 3 / LKS2) of a seven part series detailing what your child should be learning in each year group in primary school. We receive numerous questions from parents wondering what their child should know based on their age or year group. So, we decided to start a blog series detailing some of the core maths curriculum elements for each year group covering Reception – Year 6. Find our earlier blogs for reception here, year 1 here and year 2 here. We also provide you with some useful activities you can be doing at home with your child. This series will try to pull together information from numerous different sources in a concise, easy to understand way.
As always, it’s important to note that teachers are happy to help parents who want to be involved in their child’s education. Your first point of contact if you have any questions, worries or concerns should be the teacher. They will also have a huge amount of resources that they will be more than happy to share with you! One of the most important maths resources you should ask for is the ‘Calculation Policy’ of the school. This will outline and give you a better understanding of the calculation strategies taught in each year group.
Year 3 / LKS2 Maths Curriculum Goals
At this stage, your child is becoming more confident with maths. They will continue building on their knowledge from Year 2, using manipulatives and visuals – whilst also working to increase their mental arithmetic speed. Similar to Year 2, there is still an emphasis placed on practical and visual learning, however children are now moving towards understanding the abstract number representations. There will also be opportunities for your child to use maths in other areas of the curriculum. From experience, it is often around this time when there is a clash between the methods you the parent may have learnt as a child and what your child is currently learning. This is totally understandable, as teaching methods have changed over the years, and children are taught addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in a completely different way. When this happens, the most important thing to do is to take the lead from your child and ask them to explain how they are taught – showing them your methods can lead to confusion. If you are still unsure consult your child’s teacher or the ‘Calculation Policy’ of the school.
Number and Place Value
- Learning to count up in steps of 4, 8, 50 and 100
- Recognising place value of digits in a three-digit number
- Comparing and ordering numbers to 1000 and writing these numbers in numerals and words
Geometry
- Drawing 2D shapes and 3D shapes and working out the perimeter
- Recognising right angles and identifying whether angles are greater or smaller
- Identifying horizontal, vertical, parallel and perpendicular lines
Measuring
- Interpreting and presenting data using bar charts, pictographs and tables
- Answering one-step and two-step questions about the data presented
- Adding and subtracting measurements of length, weight and capacity
- Adding and subtracting amounts of money
- Telling and writing the time using the 12 and 24 hour clock
Fractions
- Finding fractions of quantities
- Understanding equivalent fractions
- Adding and subtracting fractions with the same denominator
Calculating
- Adding and subtracting with numbers up to three digits using column addition
- Knowing multiplication facts for the 3, 4 and 8 times table
- Multiplying two-digit numbers by one-digit numbers
Home activities:
Try to link your child’s maths activities to real-life practical tasks involving maths. For example, if the topic at school is measuring, try and bring this into some activity at home- measuring and comparing heights. Working through recipes in the kitchen – weighing and measuring capacity is a valuable activity.
Talk about the time – get them to look at the clock when they get up, go to school, or watch their favourite TV programme. Use a T.V. Guide. Ask your child to work out the length of their favourite programmes.
Create opportunities for your child to handle money and work within a budget.
Play a multiplication game with a pack of cards – each player takes two cards, multiplies them and whoever has the higher number gets a point (remember to use only the number cards)
Resources:
This is a really useful blog with numerous games for Year 3 / LKS2 maths.
The schoolrun.com is a great source for other information.
Some really fun and interactive games for year 3 pupils and best of all they are free!
If you are a parent and need some advice or you are worried about your child’s current progress, feel free to reach out to us at Primary Tutor Project! We will be adding to this series each week! If there is any topic in particular you require advice for contact us here.
