Number journey for ages 5-6 - Andrew Brodie

An exciting new series of Maths titles from Andrew Brodie focusing onthe teaching of number and calculation skills. Primary children are nowtaught number and calculation skills using a range of differentmethods. This range and variety is most noticeable at Key Stage 2 butthe foundations are laid in Key Stage 1.

The most obvious difficultiesemerge with how to teach multiplication. Most schools are now using agrid method, which should lead through to a vertical format, but manyteachers are not clear as to when to make the switch or how to do it.

What Number Journey provides is a clear, logical progression withlots of practice at each step along the way. It covers the fourrules: addition, subtraction and multiplication and specify particularmethods for each one. Most of the materials that are currently on themarket are full maths programmes addressing all aspects of maths,including 'using and applying mathematics', or are targeting narrowareas such as mental maths. Number Journey would addressstrands 2, 3 and 4 of the new Mathematics framework: 'counting andunderstanding number', 'knowing and using number facts' and'calculating'. An extremely useful feature of the series is the lettersto parents helping schools to explain to parents the approach beingused.