A few years ago

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Activities for numeracy
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= Number Bonds: =
% Money Tracks %
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= by Gordon Ward =
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 Gordon Ward. file: f08b1276-9a62-4aa8-87f9-7cd03ece1f06.doc (11/03/2012) 1
Number Bonds: Money Tracks
by Gordon Ward

Aims and Ages:
The activities in this booklet are designed for use with pupils learning basic number bonds –
i.e. pupils aged 5 - 8; they are also useful for older children particularly pupils learning
English as an additional language and those pupils with special educational needs

The activities give pupils opportunities to
 practice addition and subtraction to 10, 20 and 100 using a money based activity

Contents

How to prevent pupils practising their number bonds 3

Money Track – summary of activity 5

Track 1 6

Track 2 Error! Bookmark not defined.Error! Bookmark not defined.

Track 3 Error! Bookmark not defined.Error! Bookmark not defined.

Money cards 9

EAL Booklets
Gordon Ward, 9 Shepherd’s Wood Drive, Nottingham NG8 3NA
Email: gordon.ward2000@ntlworld.com

 Gordon Ward. file: f08b1276-9a62-4aa8-87f9-7cd03ece1f06.doc (11/03/2012) 2
How to prevent pupils practising their number bonds

A few years ago, before the National Numeracy Strategy was introduced, I was observing a
language support teacher in a year 3 class. She was very busy working with 2 groups of
children who were playing a Maths game. The mainstream teacher was also very busy talking
to individual children at the far side of the classroom about the Maths work they were doing.

One girl, sitting close to me, put her hand up and waited quietly.
I decided to do nothing, but to wait and see what would happen.
The girl continued to wait
and wait
and wait.

At the end of about 5 minutes, I went to help her. She was faced with a worksheet something
like this:-

Match the astronauts to the rockets

4+3
1+8
6+2

8 7
9

I explained what she had to do. She did it in about half a minute, then put her hand up again
and waited quietly for someone to explain the next page. (Yes I did help her).

The more I thought about this little incident the more worrying it seemed, partly because it
linked to my own experience in the classroom.

At the time I was working with a year 5 class. About 25 out of the 28 pupils in the class were
bilingual. Their number bonds were very poor. Hardly any of them could work quickly with
simple multiplication tasks (6 x 4, 9 x 3, etc.), and even fewer could carry out simple division
tasks (36  4, etc.). Indeed many of them had problems with addition and subtraction to 10 or
20. I began to wonder if the sort of Mathematical tasks we were giving to pupils, particularly
bilingual pupils were hindering rather than helping them.

 Gordon Ward. file: f08b1276-9a62-4aa8-87f9-7cd03ece1f06.doc (11/03/2012) 3
The problem with the activity in the page reproduced above is that the English is much more
difficult than the Maths.
 The word "astronaut" is uncommon and it was obvious that the girl concerned didn't
know what one was.
 The word "astronaut" is also a difficult word to read.
In contrast the Maths was very simple; the girl could easily do the sums and she completed the
task extremely quickly. If the teacher wanted the girl to practice her number bonds to 10
wouldn't some old fashioned sums have been preferable? The girl could have done 30 sums in
the time it took her to find out what to do with the task that was set her.

As a result of my thinking outlined above I reached a number of conclusions:
1. As very few words are needed to learn basic number bonds, there is no reason why
average bilingual pupils shouldn't learn them readily. We need to ensure that pupils do
have sufficient practice of number bonds without their having to struggle to understand
the language.
2. The language of Maths and the language used in our text books and worksheets needs to
be analysed and then carefully taught. In particular we need to ensure that there is
adequate repetition of the language we use.
3. We need to devise and use activities, number games, etc. in order to ensure that bilingual
pupils have sufficient practice at using the language of Maths orally.
4. We need to encourage the pupils to learn their number bonds and other Mathematical
concepts in two languages wherever possible as this will reinforce the learning. This
might also lead to the positive involvement of parents in their children's learning.

 Gordon Ward. file: f08b1276-9a62-4aa8-87f9-7cd03ece1f06.doc (11/03/2012) 4
Money Track – summary of activity

In order to reinforce the basic number bonds of some year 3 children I was teaching I devised
a game - "Money Track" - and the rest of this booklet contains the game at 3 different levels.

Materials
The materials needed for the game are:
 a track with amounts of money written on every other square (sample tracks are included
in this booklet - for younger children they should be enlarged to A3 size when
photocopying them.)
 some plastic money (or the equivalent - two pages of photocopiable money are attached
to this booklet)
 a dice
 a counter for each player

The game can be played in two different ways. For each of the games it is useful for one of the
pupils to act as banker, although this is not essential.

GAME 1:
At the beginning of the game decide how much money each player has to collect. The
following amounts are recommended:
Track 1 - 10p or 20p
Track 2 - 20p or 50p
Track 3 - £1 or £5.
Players take it in turn to throw a dice and to move a counter round the track. If a
counter lands on a square with an amount of money on it, the player collects that
amount from the banker. The first person to reach the target amount is the winner.
Note - it may take several circuits of the board before a winner evolves.

GAME 2:
At the beginning of the game each player is given a certain amount of money (see
recommendations for game 1).
Players take it in turn to throw a dice and to move a counter round the track. If a
counter lands on a square with an amount of money, the player pays that amount to the
banker. The last person to have any money left is the winner.
Note - it may take several circuits of the board before a winner evolves.

 Gordon Ward. file: f08b1276-9a62-4aa8-87f9-7cd03ece1f06.doc (11/03/2012) 5
  1p  4p 
  2p
1p 
 Money 5p
2p Track 1 

adding to 10p or
3p giving change
from 10p

3p 
 1p
5p  2p  4p 
GAME 1: Keep going round the track collecting the money. First person to get 10p (or 20p
or 50p) is the winner.
GAME 2. Start with 10p (or 20p or 50p) each. Pay money each time you land on a price.
Last person with any money left is the winner.
 Gordon Ward. file: f08b1276-9a62-4aa8-87f9-7cd03ece1f06.doc (11/03/2012) 6
  1p  4p 
  7p
1p 
 Money 10p

2p Track 2 

adding to 20p/50p or
giving change from
20p/50p 3p
8p 
 6
5p  2p  9p 
GAME 1: Keep going round the track collecting the money. First person to get 20p (or 50p)
is the winner.
GAME 2. Start with 20p (or 50p) each. Pay money each time you land on a price. Last
person with any money left is the winner.
 Gordon Ward. file: f08b1276-9a62-4aa8-87f9-7cd03ece1f06.doc (11/03/2012) 7
  35p  14p 
  27p

11p 
 Money 10p

20p Track 3 

adding to £1/£5 or
giving change from
£1/£5
13p

18p 
 26p

25p  12p  9p 
GAME 1: Keep going round the track collecting the money. First person to get £1 or £5 is
the winner.
GAME 2. Start with £1 or £5 each. Pay money each time you land on a price. Last person
with any money left is the winner.
 Gordon Ward. file: f08b1276-9a62-4aa8-87f9-7cd03ece1f06.doc (11/03/2012) 8
Money cards

1p 1p 1p

1p 2p 2p

2p 2p 2p

5p 5p 5p

10p 10p 20p

 Gordon Ward. file: f08b1276-9a62-4aa8-87f9-7cd03ece1f06.doc (11/03/2012) 9
5p 5p
10p

10p 10p 10p

20p 20p 20p

50p 50p 50p

£1 £1 £1

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££££££££££

£5
££££££££££
£1 ££££££££££
££££££££££
££££££££££
£££££££££££££££££££££££ £££££££££££££££££££££££