Cross-curricula numeracy. How and Why should numeracy be cross-curricula?

Numeracy is a huge part of every day life, it is included in everyone’s life, but children to tend to get bored if the subject is just related on adding, subtracting sums, it would be very boring for children. By cross curricula numeracy with other subjects would make it a bit more appealing especially for younger children, blending numeracy with art.

“A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns… The mathematician’s patterns, like the painter’s or the poet’s must be beautiful; the ideas like the colours or the words, must fit together in a harmonious way. Beauty is the first test.” (GH Hardy)

Everyday lessons for example, English recognising animals, then blending maths by counting how many of them animals are there. Science and math, using Litres, ML measuring liquids. Geography and maths using a compass seeing distances between places. History and math learning how many years was First World War, and other history dates.

English: count the number of lines in a poem

Art: calculate the amount of paint needed to cover your canvas

History: Multiply the number of King Henrys by the number of King Georges

PE: time yourself running 100m, take your pulse, draw a graph…
Classroom themes with maths such as Bonfire, how many bonfires do you see in a picture, after seeing 4 pictures add them all together, creating sums on something children are interested in. Harry Potter, how many spells did he use in a certain scene. Christmas how many cards have they got make for their families, creating activities for their families to do at the Christmas table. There are different things to be able to blend maths into everything.

Questions that could be asked in lessons that cross - curricular mathematics within. 

• How could you sort these…….?
• How many ways can you find to ……. ?
• What happens when we ……… ?
• How many different ……. can be found?
• What is the same/different?
• Can you group these ……. in some way?
• Is there a pattern?
• How can this pattern help you find an answer?
• What do think comes next? Why?
• Is there a way to record what you’ve found that might help us see more patterns?
• What would happen if….?

“It very quickly became evident that the opportunities for pupils to apply their cross-curricular skills had increased enormously, particularly in numeracy.” (Estyn, 2019)

Sharing literacy and numeracy skills as learning objectives in lessons, children can recognise that the skills they have been learning in English and mathematics can be practised in other lessons and also realise the skills they need to use better. Monitoring Children’s books has shown that children are using a wide range of literacy and numeracy skills at an appropriate level in all subjects. Teachers use project-based work and units of work to provide suitable contexts to develop skills. They are detailed knowledge of the frameworks also confident in planning for the development of literacy and numeracy lessons.

I very much like this lesson plan on blending the subjects, it works well and effectively. 

Photo is an amazing way to cross curricular maths with other subjects:

https://www.estyn.gov.wales/effective-practice/making-literacy-and-numeracy-priority

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