Child Safety Week Maths Activities: Topical Maths [6]
Stay safe with our Child Safety Week Maths activities!
As the half term holidays come to an end, teachers have the chance to start the second half of summer term afresh. For pupils and teachers, the last half term was likely the most stressful of the year. As such, the start of this half term is important for getting pupils back into the swing of learning without SATs, and to re-engage them with maths.
Challenging & engaging KS2 maths content post-SATs
Crucially, this half-term’s maths work should show pupils that learning isn’t just for SATs (challenging content, anyone?) while boosting the confidence and engagement of pupils who may have struggled with the assessments.
In other words, while this half term is a chance to teach maths content in more flexible and enjoyable ways, it should be done within the context of providing challenging maths activities for Key Stage 2 pupils.
KS2 Topical Maths Problems for Summer Term
18 Maths investigations linked to calendar dates, designed to develop reasoning and problem solving in your pupils 
In our one to one maths intervention for primary schools, our maths specialists tutors engage pupils with challenging questions by linking learning back to their personal interests and hobbies. As such, pupils never feel as though they are being asked the “same old” maths questions they see every week.
Using topical maths to boost engagement at Key Stage 2
Another way to make content relevant to pupils is to link it back to real-world events, such as calendar dates. It is a small change, but the more purpose pupils feel their classroom work has the more they engage with it. Put simply, topical maths activities such as the 20 FREE KS2 topical reasoning investigations found here are a great way to get pupils excited about getting back to the classroom.
Key Stage 2 Child Safety Week maths activities
As such, at the start of the new half term try using this ‘Child Safety Week’, maths activities.
The theme of this year’s Child Safety Week, which takes place from the 4th of June to the 10th, is “Safe children: together we’ve got this!”. After all, we all have our part to play in sharing the responsibility to prevent accidents among children.
Particularly as, for better or worse, teachers are on the frontline of pupils’ physical and mental wellbeing. Which is why the opportunity to help prevent accidents – all while teaching maths – is doubly important.
So with that in mind, here is a topical maths investigation just like the 20 you can find in this NEW free KS2 Topical Maths resource, full of ideas you can pluck ‘straight from the shelf’ and teach to your class today.
Accident Arithmetic
Get your pupils to answer these Child Safety Week KS2 Maths questions to kick-start learning in your lesson this week:
- 30,000 children go to A&E every year with signs of poisoning. How many children is this each month?
- 130,000 children are injured in the garden every year. How many children is this each week?
- One million children aged 14 and under go to Accident and Emergency every year following an injury in the home. How many children is this each month? Round your answer to the nearest whole number.
- 39% of all children’s accidents in the home are from falling. How many children are injured in a fall each year?
Check out 20+ more fun topical Maths investigations KS2 in our blog: 5 Ways to Use Topical Maths to Improve Problem Solving and Reasoning.
Do you have pupils who need extra support in maths?
Every week Third Space Learning’s maths specialist tutors support thousands of pupils across hundreds of schools with weekly online 1-to-1 lessons and maths interventions designed to plug gaps and boost progress.
Since 2013 we’ve helped over 150,000 primary and secondary school pupils become more confident, able mathematicians. Learn more or request a personalised quote for your school to speak to us about your school’s needs and how we can help.
