The online (tablet) activities - Bringing Maths alive!

The tablet activities are designed to give children practical experience of number, regular practice of core skills, and the freedom to explore and investigate to see 'what happens if'. They cover counting & place value, addition & subtraction, multiplication & division, fractions, decimals & percentages and measurement.

The easiest way to begin, is to introduce your children to the wise owls. The owls will lead them through a carefully structured programme of activities, either in school or at home, to reinforce things they have already been taught. As the children work, cute characters pop up which they can collect - a great motivator! The teacher's or parent's guide will help you get up and running quickly.

Once you are started, teachers (or parents!) can select from a differentiated bank of activities to support the teaching programme. You gather the children round for a short lesson, using practical equipment (counters, base ten material, metre stick) to discuss ideas - the Guide to the Wise Owls will give you helpful ideas for the initial lessons. You then set the children to work through an investigation either in pairs or individually, to explore the concept in more depth and consolidate the new skills, using the same practical equipment to reinforce their thinking. It is this talking about Maths as you investigate it that really helps to build understanding. Most investigations are followed by a 10 question quiz, which the children complete unaided.

If children complete their assignments early, they have access to a wide range of other investigations, quizzes and tournaments which they can explore on their own.


Key features:

- The materials are colourful. They are engaging. They are simple to use.

- There are no moving graphics to distract, so the children focus on the Maths. (As I mentioned above, there are some cute animals - and fruits and vegetables, but they don't move about. The kids love them nevertheless, particularly the baby ones!)

- The children can make up questions and explore patterns with their own choice of numbers.

- There is a points reward system which is based on effort, not on ability.

- They appeal equally to 6 year olds and 11 year olds, both to those who find Maths a challenge and to those who need a challenge. (See their latest feedback)

- You can set investigations and quizzes for your class and monitor their progress. The children can choose their own activities from within the ones you have selected and they can monitor their progress too.

- There is a star system built in to encourage children to consolidate previous learning.

- Children get their 'names in lights' in lots of different places - lots of reinforcement of success.


If you'd like your children to catch the bug too, you can get a full years access with individual logins for your whole class for just £30.