Using the Maths Treasure Trails
Key Stage 1

Site 1 - Counting Numbers http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Tower/9730/Count.htm
This page contains numbers 1 - 10 and a number of objects representing each number. The site can be used to reinforce children confidence with counting to 10 and from 10 back to 1. They might also develop their own 'Counting Numbers' posters using different objects to represent each number. This could be done using the children's own paintings, pictures cut from magazines or using a painting program on the computer with clip-art images.

Site 2 - Monday's Child http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Glade/7438/MondaysChild.html
This page contains the Children's Rhyme about the qualities of children born on different days of the week. It can be used to reinforce the names and order of days of the week. Subsequently, the children could carry out a survey about the day of the week they were born. The results of this survey can be entered into a graphing package and the graphs displayed in the classroom. Some children may not know this information 'off hand' and so you may need to send a question slip home to parents asking them for the information. Alternatively, you could do a survey about on which day of the week their birthday falls this year or write 'Day poems' about events that happen on specific days of the week.

Site 3 - Bargain's Galore http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/dynamo/den/index.shtml
This site has a number of mathematical activities including 'Money Snap', 'Clockwise' and 'Matching Time' as well as 'Bargain's Galore'. It would be worth taking time to allow the children to explore each of these areas. The games are structured with different levels and so there should be something in each game that's appropriate for everyone in your class. 'Bargain's Galore' is about using the correct number of coins to buy a toy displayed on a conveyor belt. Children may need first to practice paying the exact amount for different items using plastic coins which they could do in the 'play area' before coming to the computer.

Site 4 - Your Weight on Other Planets http://www.ambleside.schoolzone.co.uk/ambleweb/planetweight/planet.htm
This site can be used as part of a topic on measurement, having first completed work about weighing different items, including themselves. You could talk to the children about how gravity on Earth affects how much we weigh and introduce the idea that gravity is different on other planets in our Solar System. If it is available, you could show video images of astronauts on the surface of the moon showing them carrying large objects and being able to jump very high because of the reduced gravity. The table on this site allows the children to enter their weight on Earth and then to see how much they would weigh on the other planets. You might ask them to predict whether they think they will be heavier or lighter on each planet and ask them to give reasons for their predictions.

Site 5 - Brain Wave http://www.ambleside.schoolzone.co.uk/ambleweb/quizes/brain2.htm
This site has a number of 'Mental Arithmetic' questions for the children to answer to do with the four rules of number, number sequences and halving and doubling. These questions will already be familiar to the children as part of their daily mathematics lessons and most will have little difficulty in completing the quiz. You might ask them to work in groups to develop a similar 'Mental Arithmetic' quiz for others in the class to complete. Of course they should also provide an answer sheet so that the other children can check whether or not they have the correct answers!

Site 6 - Star Tower http://www.apple.com/uk/education/schools/startower/index.html
The question associated with this site is quite trivial compared to the mathematical content of this site. 'Duck's Digits' is to do with number sequences and it has three levels of difficulty. I suggest for Key Stage 1 children that you start with Level 1 as the higher levels do get quite difficult. Children should already have had experience of different number sequences. In this activity the children are given the first numbers in a sequence and they are then asked to complete the sequence using the other numbers displayed. Help is available if the children are struggling to spot the sequence. This activity would be good to do with the whole class if you have access to a large computer monitor or you can link your computer to a large screen TV.

Site 7 - Tessellations http://www.coolmath.com/tesspag1.htm
This site explains what Tessellations are and how and why they work. The level of reading is quite high and so it might be best if you direct the use of this site with the whole class or a smaller group. This will allow you to explain what the children can see on the screen. Children can also look for and make a display of shapes which tessellate in the classroom, school, home and neighbourhood recreating them using coloured sticky paper shapes or a painting or tiling program on the computer. The children will discover some shapes do not tessellate or only tessellate when they are used in association with another shape. For example, a leather football requires more that one shape to make it fit together. They might look for other examples where two or more shapes are used to make a pattern and add these to their display.

Site 8 - Wind Speeds http://www.sutton.lincs.sch.uk/weather/research/research.htm
As part of a topic on measurement you might study measurement of the weather: temperature; rainfall; wind speed etc. This site has lots of weather related data available, including the possibility of submitting your data to add it to a larger database of weather data. The 'Wind' section of this site includes a section on the standard measurement of wind speeds, 'The Beaufort Scale'. Children can be encouraged to keep records of wind speeds over the period of a week and compare them with the measurements shown in this chart. They can use a graphing package or painting package to record their data and then use their data to find the highest wind speed they record over the week. You can ask the children to think about how this value might change over the period of a year. You might even revisit this activity to compare wind speeds at different times of the year.

Site 9 - Healthy Cooking http://www.dole5aday.com/COOK/COOKBOOK.html
Children love Maths that they can eat! This site contains healthy eating recipes using fresh fruit and vegetables. As part of a topic on standard and non-standard measures you might talk about the importance of using standard measures when lots of other people need to be able to use the same measurements, for example, when following a recipe. In the chosen recipe for this question, you might ask the children to consider if it would matter if they didn't all use exactly the same amounts used in this recipe? What about if they were baking a cake? or making a spaghetti sauce? You might explain that when cooking personal preference is often more important than following a recipe exactly. Would this be the same if we were following instructions on a map?

Site 10 - Tangrams http://www.microworlds.com/library/math/index.html
This site allows you to download a 'Tangram' microworld which then can be explored off-line. The program gives the children lots of patterns to try and match, but they might like to make other patterns of their own. Tangrams can be easily made using a large square of coloured card. The children could recreate their own patterns and display them in the classroom. The children can also learn the names and properties of the shapes in the Tangram puzzle and perhaps research the origins of the puzzle.