These emergency lesson plans for Year 6 Numeracy are only to be used by supply teachers who are faced with no planning or easily accessible resources. Also to be used following the guidance notes here.

Block A – Counting, partitioning and calculating

• Addition and subtraction of decimals (use money – they relate well to it usually!)
• Ordering, partitioning and rounding decimals. Find decimals by first dividing numbers on a calculator by non-factors.
• Positive and negative numbers, thermometer, temperature around the world/around the year.
• Using a calculator (got any?) take them through your day, shop for clothes, shop for meals, tell them your budget to start with, get them to warn you when you're getting close, and can you afford the pair of shoes in the next shop?
• Logical shape patterns, draw e.g. circle, triangle, square, circle on the board, and get them to predict next three symbols, then do more complex ones, start with triangle (3 edges) and go up 1 edge each time, double the number of corners each time, then colour code them, do shape and colour different pattern to challenge (circle, triangle, square, but red, red, blue, green, so it takes a while for the pattern to be seen properly as they may associate the colour with the shape to start with.

Block B – Securing number facts, understanding shape

• Revise multiples and factors. Introduce prime numbers and prime factors. Look at tests of divisibility for 10, 100, 1000, 2, 3, 5, see if the children can work out 6 and 9 from this knowledge, and try 4.
• How would the children work out * and / of decimals mentally? Look at know facts from tables, and apply.., give lots of exercise on applying known facts i.e. 5.6 / 8 = 0.7
• Look at patterns within shapes… internal angles, external angles, can they find patterns? Helps with Logo!
• Give the children dice, and in pairs ask to throw 2 fifty times and keep a tally of sum of two faces. Ask first to write a prediction of which number will be the mode and what the average number will be. Stop after 20 or so throws and ask them to check if their predictions are on the right tracks. Present graph and explanation of results, as if Science test, how was it a fair test, was your prediction right, equipment needed, conclusion etc.
• Naming 2-D quadrilaterals: rhombus, parallelogram, trapezium and kite/delta. Look at irregular polygons and name those too.

Block C – Handling data and measures

• Probability: Children to make up predictions, it will rain tomorrow, England will win the World Cup, a dodo will be found wandering on the beach down the road, and place them on a scale of probability… use language first, never, unlikely, even chance, l
• Mode (most common) median (the one in the middle if they're all lined up in order), range and mean (another word for average) of number of hours spent in front of TV/book a week, put onto a pie chart.
• Children have 1p, 2p and 5p pieces, can they make all the numbers up to 20p with them? Present as an experiment, question, prediction, equipment, results, conclusion.
• Conversion of metric units, 1.23km to m to cm, l to ml, g to mg etc.
• Give children a table of data, results from a science experiment, perhaps height of sunflowers grown in different conditions. Children to present an appropriate graph of results, then answer questions on it… include misleading data, i.e. sunflower with no water grown to 2.3m, and ask what this might be (23cm, or mix up with another children sunflower etc.)

Block D – Calculating, measuring and understanding shape

• Mental and written methods of HTU * TU, estimate and check very important, and can use a calculator for checking, but not estimating!
• Imperial measurement, conversions to and from metric.
• Drawing angles accurately. Draw some on board, not to scale, but roughly right shape, give children 2 lengths plus corresponding angle to draw to scale and accurately in their books.
• Angle sums of triangles, explore with scalene too, angles around the outside. Total of internal and external angles around a point. Look at angles where one line cuts through another (# shape for example), including relationships, parallel lines etc.
• Rotational symmetry, describing and drawing, start with regular polygons, hexagon etc., and move onto challenging them to draw a pattern with given rotational symmetry.

Block E – Securing number facts, relationships and calculating

• Seduko! Honestly, I've seen it done for a whole hour with Year 6! Ok, try magic number squares instead. A 3 x 3 square, where each number 1 – 9 can only be used once, and all rows must add up to the same number, what number should they all add up to? Can you start with the 9 in different places? What do the corners add up to? Do the diagonals meet the objective? Can you use different numbers i.e. consecutive multiples of 3 to add to something else? Try all same with 4 x 4 square. Most importantly, children must work logically, predict, present findings and come to a conclusion/find a rule.
• Fractions frenzy, revise with them whatever you do to the top, you do to the bottom, for finding equivalent fractions, or divide by the denominator and multiply by the numerator for finding fractions of numbers/quantities and give them loads of word problems. Some children, especially girls (I'll reference that one day, I'm not being funny!) like to do pages and pages of systematic work, and see lots of ticks at the end of it!
• Ditto above with percentages.
• Simplifying fractions… find lowest denominator, or lowest common denominator, or lowest common multiple of sets of fractions, so that you can put them in order, place fractions along a number line, use a calculator to find e.g. 5/8 as a decimal so you can place it on a number line.
• Proportion problems: maps to scale, find real distances, give a recipe that make 12 cakes and ask for ingredients working out which makes 16 instead.

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