The Great Summer Times Tables Maths Challenge

Mr Surtees
July 16, 2018

This year, the Cornelius Vermuyden Maths Department is pleased to launch “The Great Summer Times Tables Maths Challenge”. To know your times tables is an essential foundation to any form of Mathematics, particularly with the new curriculum gathering momentum. Over the summer holiday, the Maths Department has launched a times table challenge in a bid to support our students in their study of Maths.

Each student taking part has already completed an online times table challenge, measuring their accuracy and fluency in answering questions. Over the summer holidays, they will all receive an A3 times table poster for their bedroom wall and a times table record card. These will be given out to the students before the end of term and emailed out to parents.

It would be wonderful if, as parents/carers, you could support the project by helping your son/daughter to learn their times tables off by heart. To know something off by heart means they can recall the answer quickly and easily without calculating on their fingers, something we would like to discourage in the longer term. When you are satisfied that your son/daughter has completed each times table, please sign their record card. The card consists of two columns, the first one when they can recite the times tables i.e. “one times two equals two, two times two equals four….,” and the second column when they can tell you the answer fluently from any random question.

On return to school in September 2018, we hope to retest the students to see the progress made and also collate the (hopefully completed) record cards. Prizes will be available for those students who have engaged in the challenge and therefore will, undoubtedly, have made progress in their times tables.

You can assist in the learning of the times tables as much as possible over the summer:

• In shops, get your son/daughter to calculate totals for you before you pay.
• Students can redo the test online as many times as they wish and the report can be sent to your email address; just click on the link: https://komodomath.com/kickstart and then scroll to the Times Tables 2x - 12x challenge, follow the onscreen instructions and away they go!
• Play games with your son/daughter at breakfast or mealtimes. Remove all face cards and aces from a pack of cards. Deal cards evenly between players. Two people play top card face up and multiply the values of each card. The winner is first to shout out the correct answer and wins the cards. At the end of the game, the winner is one with most cards.
• As above, but instead of playing with cards use dice. Ideally try and get some ten sided dice. These are usually available from toy or joke shops.

Hope all makes sense and good luck with the challenge!!!

Summer Times Table Challenge

Your son / daughter has been invited by the Maths Department to take part in a Summer Times Table Challenge. The aim of the challenge is to increase students capacity to access the Maths Curriculum next year.

What to do:

Part 1:

Your son / daughter should have already taken a pre-leaving times table challenge in school details below. There is nothing to stop students having another go if they wish at home. All results should be automatically emailed to our central email.

Log on to Komodo Maths

https://komodomath.com/kickstart

Scroll down to:

Click on the Times Table 2x-12x (for ages 7-11)

At the prompt stage above, in the parents name they should enter their maths teacher name, E.g., MrSurtees and the following email address.

cvmaths@outlook.com

At the next prompt enter their own details.

IMPORTANT THEY ARE ACCURATE AS THEY GET CERTIFICATE!!! Please enter name and surname for ease of finding results.

The students then do a speed test to get used to clicking and when ready follow prompts to take test.

Part Two:

Please engage with your child as often as possible in terms of their times tables. ALL THE STUDENTS WILL ALL RECEIVE AN A3 TIMES TABLE POSTER FOR THEIR ROOM TO HELP THEM PRACTICE.

Ways to help:

• Test your child regularly on an individual times table (2, 5 and 10 are bets start points)
• Get the student to recite the table, “ 1 x 2 =2, 2 x 2 = 4 etc.”
• Randomly test your child out and about, “What is 2x3?”
• Take opportunity when out and about in shops for example, “ What is 3 x £8?”

Part Three:

Upon their return to school students will be retested again using the online test to see if any progress has been made.

VERY IMPORTANT:

Return and present their completed record card to their maths teacher in September!!

Good Luck

Click here to download the Times Table Record Card.