This article presents activities focused on developing some essential Year 1-3 fraction understandings (i.e., joining/composing, decomposing/ partitioning) while aligning these activities to the Australian Curriculum content strands and content descriptions. Additionally, the authors describe the materials/resources needed, the key vocabulary…

In this article the authors provide an overview of the Interdisciplinary Mathematics and Science project conducted in Grades 1 to 6 in four Australian schools. The project teachers implemented an enquiry-based pedagogical model through 12 interrelated topics. This paper details how a range of mathematics and science concepts can be effectively…

Evidence suggests that some students have learned procedures with little or no underpinning understanding while others have a much more connected and conceptual levels of understanding. In this article, the work of four primary students is discussed in terms of their contextual understanding of multiplicative concepts. The difference between…

Providing students with an opportunity to explore mathematical content through games allows teachers to include tasks that: (1) present alternative representations of the content; (2) welcome various expressions of mathematical reasoning; and (3) incorporate variations that empower all students to engage in the problem solving process. Games not…

Mathematics needs to take on a real-world quality, and students need to be able to identify and connect the value of what they are learning within the classroom to life outside the classroom. Creating a connection between the mathematics learned within a classroom and its value to life in the outside world is critical to effectively engage…

In this article, the authors present two activities in which students explore angles and related geometric properties in the context of dance, namely ballet. The activities have been successfully implemented in pre-service numeracy classes at Monash University's two-year, post-degree teacher education program (MTeach). Specifically, the activities…

Problems sourced from national and international competitions such as the Australian Mathematics Competition are often used effectively as enrichment and/or extension activities for high achieving students. While this has meant that they are sometimes deemed too esoteric or trivial for use in the regular classroom, this paper takes the view that…

The use of enabling and extending prompts allows tasks to be both accessible and challenging within a classroom. This article provides an example of how to use enabling and extending prompts effectively when employing a challenging task in Year 2.

Lorraine Day and Derek Hurrell provide a convincing argument for using arrays to promote students' understandings of mental computation strategies for multiplication. They also provide a range of different examples that illustrate the benefits of arrays in the primary classroom.

Find out how to use photographic images to support the conceptual development of proportional thinking. This paper provides insight into a sequenced activity that promotes student engagement and makes links to familiar and unfamiliar contexts.

The concept of functional thinking as a foundational idea associated with algebraic thinking is explored by Tracey Muir, Leicha Bragg and Sharyn Livy. They provide ideas for using children's literature as a context to promote functional thinking

An engaging activity which prompts students to listen, talk, reason and write about geometrical properties. The "Bag of Tricks" encourages students to clarify their thoughts and communicate precisely using accurate mathematical language.

In providing a continued focus on tasks and activities that help to illustrate key ideas embedded in the "Australian Curriculum," this issue focuses on the Statistics and probability strand and the sub-strand of Chance. In the Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2015), students are not asked to list outcomes of chance experiments and represent…

In this article it can be seen how primary school students, pre-service and in-service teachers can all benefit from the experience of participating in a lunchtime maths club. A range of activities suitable for an extracurricular club is included.

Use of technology in the mathematics classroom has the potential to advance children's learning of mathematics and enhance their attitudes about mathematics. When used in conjunction with purposeful planning, teachers can use technological tools to reinforce their pedagogical intentions and to facilitate relevant learning activities for students.…