The maths knowledge sheets have now gone out to 4 other schools. I'm about to graph the stages our year 4 - 6 are working at with number knowledge. The data looks like we've improved since the beginning of term 2 even.
A big oops! Did you know the sun set in the east? Just one of only a few mistakes appearing now. One year 6 has taken great delight in finding my mistakes - but there are less and less of them as I check and re-check! I shall win!
Our parents reported that they too sometimes struggle to help their children particularly with geometry and measurement because they're unsure of the vocabulary. Many of our families speak a language other than English at home.
Onwards and upwards.

About that weekly practise sheet: doing the other strands
I don't know how you cover measurement, geometry at your school, but it seems to me that however you do it, the children can easily forget the vocabulary. I mean how often do you hear children using words like symmetry or net in their casual conversations!

My class are enjoying this other aspect, but had forgotten for example, symmetry. I know this was covered last year because I saw lots of practical investigations in their classes on this. It's the vocabulary acquisition problem.
I just set up some geoboards and pegs on a table and a few children started making symmetrical patterns etc - that got the buzz going and they remembered the concept. Now I'm hoping that when we focus on geometry in term 4, we can move on developing the concept. I'm hoping they will be more confident about using the vocab as they discuss their investigations.
Here's hoping.

Well we're up and running in the Year 4-6 of the school! Every week the students take home their stage appropriate sheet to practise as part of their homework. On Friday, they get 4 minutes to do it. There's a real buzz in my classroom as so many are improving. One boy who at the beginning of the year scored very slow on the IKAN assessment is now consistently getting around 45 out of 50 at stage 4. He's just bursting with a sense of achievement. This is now being reflected in his growing confidence in developing part-whole strategies.
This weekly practise sheet is only one of my strategies of course. This boy has regular group teaching, lots of working with materials etc. , regular practise of stage appropriate number knowledge and strategies through games, investigations etc.

We held a parent's 'guided walk-through' during maths time at a our school recently and were overwhelmed with parents particularly dads. This was a very positive time. So we know that many parents are interested in helping their children with their maths. We want to capitalize on this.

As Lester Flockton repeatedly points out we have the students for only about 20% of their waking hours. That means we don't have them for 80% of their waking hours!