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Primary Teaching Resources Made Fun

Primary school resources for Maths can bring to life what can otherwise be a dry subject. A good handling of maths is a vital tool for children to learn, and the sooner they get a good grasp of numbers the better. The time was teachers would spend hours devising and creating tools with which to make maths an interesting visual experience. Nowadays, however, there are a number of primary teaching resources available to buy which engage with children on a strong visual level.

Primary school children may not yet have strong reading or numerical schools (that, after all, is why they are primary school children), but their visual skills are as strong as any. That’s why the best primary teaching resources need to offer children a visual key for solving number problems. Easily recognisable images children can relate to are used to teach numeracy in a fun manner.

Currency is taught using cards depicting geometric sweets; each individual sweet represents a single unit, boxes of sweets represent tens and jars of sweets represent hundreds. It’s so much less dry than discussing pence pounds. Most children of primary school age will never have handled significant amounts of money, but they will be only too familiar with counting out and eying up sweets. These sweet cards were the first, but there are now many different Place Value card sets, using different fun metaphors to teach practical mathematical skills. Fractions are explained through commonly divisible items such as pizzas, pies, puddings and tarts. Other sets allow the same subjects to be taught but with marginally different emphasis, so that children can separate and recognise the different tasks involved in more complex sums (e.g. facts to 10 can be taught in different ways with Digit Pop Ups, Busy Boats, Zillions, Wish Fish and Lady Bugs). The Monster Number Line goes further, teaching numbers as high as 30, 50 or even 100 depending on the abilities and aptitude of the children.

Many teachers find it to particularly difficult to get boys to engage in the classroom. X-Planes help explain (geddit?) early years maths concepts such as number lines and missing numbers. Footie Facts frames those same digits and bonds to 10 or doubles in a manner that many young boys will find engaging and interesting.

The Multiplication Rainbow has been a particular success. It is essentially a redesigned multiplication table. Rather than having the digits in strict lines and columns, they are arranged along the cures and colours of a rainbow. Like all the products here mentioned, the design helps make learning that little bit less formal and intimidating, while the bright, regimented colours can act as a guide and reminder for children when trying to recall their times tables.

Both adults and children do some of their best learning when they don’t even realise they ARE learning. Playground Pictures extend the learning experience into the playground or garden. External PVC wall pictures put across important literacy or numeracy information in a bold and colourful manner. Available pictures include rabbits, caterpillars, flowers, bees and stars. All can be easily fixed to walls or fences with glue, screws or nails.

Above all, these products are designed to make learning fun. Concepts which may seem simple to adults require a great deal of memorisation on the part of a child. Using fun, relatable concept makes that job so much easier for them.