Mathematics / Year 6 / Number and Algebra / Number and place value

Curriculum content descriptions

Select and apply efficient mental and written strategies and appropriate digital technologies to solve problems involving all four operations with whole numbers (ACMNA123)

Elaborations
  • applying strategies already developed for solving problems involving small numbers to those involving large numbers
  • applying a range of strategies to solve realistic problems and commenting on the efficiency of different strategies
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
  • Numeracy Numeracy
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
  • ICT capability Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capability
ScOT terms

Division,  Multiplication,  Mental arithmetic,  Subtraction,  Addition,  Written calculations

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Work sample Year 6 Mathematics: Fundraiser

This work sample demonstrates evidence of student learning in relation to aspects of the achievement standards for Year 6 Mathematics. The primary purpose for the work sample is to demonstrate the standard, so the focus is on what is evident in the sample not how it was created. The sample is an authentic representation ...

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AERO Ochre Maths Year 6 Unit 1 - Integers and decimals

This sequence of 10 lessons will enable students to understand seven-digit numbers as well as integers and decimals.

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AERO Ochre Maths Year 6 Unit 2 - Fractions

This sequence of 10 lessons teaches students about fractions, and their relationship with whole numbers and decimals.

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Smart shopping

Students compare and evaluate different shopping options.

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First steps in mathematics: Number – Book 2

The content of this book is organised into topics including understanding operations, calculating, and reasoning about number patterns.

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When I post something online how permanent is it?

Students engage in a photo rip up activity to emphasize the permanency of online information, they explore factor trees, doubling and line graphs through the lens of sharing information, and they collaboratively develop a set of protocols around sharing information online.

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Fractions: Year 6 – planning tool

This planning resource for Year 6 is for the topic of Fractions. Students develop increasingly efficient strategies for adding and subtracting fractions with related and unrelated denominators. They develop conceptual understanding by being given opportunities to estimate before computation and justify their thinking. They ...

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Mathematical modelling: Year 6 – planning tool

This planning resource for Year 6 is for the topic of Mathematical modelling. Students use mathematical modelling to solve practical problems involving natural and rational numbers and percentages, including in financial contexts. They formulate the problem, choose operations and efficient calculation strategies, and use ...

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Factors, multiples, primes: Year 6 – planning tool

This planning resource for Year 6 is for the topic of Factors and multiples. Students decompose composites into their prime factors and recognise primes as the building blocks of composite numbers. Students consolidate use of the distributive and commutative laws of multiplication to simplify calculations.

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Four operations: Year 6 – planning tool

This planning resource for Year 6 is for the topic of Four operations. Students apply knowledge of place value to add and subtract decimals, using digital tools where appropriate. They further develop whole number multiplication and then strengthen their understanding of decimals by multiplying and dividing decimals and ...

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Algebra basics video

Use this video as a springboard to introduce algebraic thinking, and to apply that thinking to a financial context, drawing on reasoning.

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MoneySmart: helping out

This is an activity about making choices to raise money for imaginary animals called gumbutangs. Their habitat is being eradicated and something must be done to save them. The user's first choice is between two websites, one a trusted one, the other a scam site. Then they are given choices about how to raise money for the ...

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Arithmetic four

This is an interactive game for two students in which they solve arithmetic problems, similar to 'Connect four'. The players can choose to work with whole number and integer addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The length of time each player will have and the level of difficulty of the problems can also be ...

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Sites2See – number for primary

Selected links to a range of interactive online resources for the study of number in Foundation to Year 6 Mathematics.

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ABC News: Mapping a sea voyage: calculating distance

Scientists involved in the Two Bays Project describe data collection methods for their 20-day expedition around Port Phillip and Western Port bays. Watch this clip to view the route mapped out by the scientists. Use Google Maps to recreate the route and calculate the total distance travelled.

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BTN: Yes, fashion designers need maths skills!

Are you interested in becoming a fashion designer? Or an architect? Or a pilot? Did you know that you need maths skills to succeed in all of these careers? Watch this video to learn how fashion designer Cristina uses maths in her work. How does architect Thomas use it? And why is maths important to pilot Paul? Can you think ...

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Buy me!

In this lesson students learn about how advertising can influence consumers. This cross-curricular lesson aims for students to identify persuasive techniques, recognise gimmicks and how they work, investigate the influence of advertising on consumer choice, develop creative thinking, explore creative and persuasive writing ...

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Owning a pet

This lesson asks students to explore statistics about pet ownership in Australia and the cost of buying and maintaining a pet. During the activities, students are asked to gather and compare data about pets in Australia using trusted information sources such as the RSPCA. They go on to consider the costs and benefits of ...

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MoneySmart: The fun begins: plan, budget, profit!

This is a unit of work integrating aspects of the year 6 mathematics, English, geography, and economics and business curriculums around planning a nature fun park. The unit is intended to take about eight hours. It consists of eight sets of student activities supported by teacher notes, including mapping, holding discussions, ...

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Paying It Forward Years 5-6

This is a cross-curricular unit about the values that underpin Australia’s democracy, the freedoms they enjoy and their role and the role of the government as duty bearers of rights. Students learn to appreciate the role of volunteers and Australia’s three levels of government in supporting the community. Students will ...

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TIMES Module 7: Number and Algebra: addition of whole numbers - teacher guide

This is a 16-page guide for teachers. This module introduces addition of whole numbers.

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TIMES Module 9: Number and Algebra: multiplication of whole numbers - teacher guide

This is a 23-page guide for teachers. This module contains a description of suitable models for multiplication, a discussion of the types of problems that require multiplication for their solution, and mental and written strategies for multiplication. The use of the commutative, associative and distributive laws is described. ...

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Subtracting decimals

This is a video demonstration, with audio commentary, of the procedure for pen-and-paper subtraction of decimal fractions. In the commentary, the presenter emphasises the links with the underpinning concepts of place value. Practice questions, limited to subtraction of decimal fractions involving tenths and hundredths, ...

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Adding decimals

This is a video demonstration, with audio commentary, of the procedure of adding decimal fractions. In the commentary, the presenter emphasises the links with the underpinning concepts of place value. Practice questions, limited to addition of decimal fractions involving tenths and hundredths, are presented with answers, ...

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Summing Decimals

An interactive resource in which students learn how to add and subtract numbers that have up to two decimal places.

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Fractions

This is a website designed for both teachers and students that addresses components of the arithmetic of fractions. It is particularly relevant for comparison and addition and subtraction of fractions with related denominators. It also contains material on finding a fraction of a quantity where the result is a whole number. ...

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Sites2See: Patterns and Algebra

Selected links to a range of interactive online resources for the study of patterns and algebra in Foundation to Year 6 Mathematics.

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The Numberline

An interactive tool that can help students explore a number line, including points representing integers, fractions and decimals

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Connecting fractions, decimals and percentages

This is a website designed for both teachers and students that addresses the connections between fractions, decimals and percentages from the Australian Curriculum for year 6 students. It contains material on the relationship between fractions, decimals and percentages and helps students understand that although there are ...

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TIMES Module 10: Number and Algebra: division of whole numbers - teacher guide

This is a 26-page guide for teachers. This module contains a description of suitable models for division, a discussion of the types of problems that require division for their solution, and mental and written strategies for division.

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Whole numbers with all four operations

This is a website designed for both teachers and students that addresses whole numbers with the four operations from the Australian Curriculum for year 6 students. It contains material on the strategies and algorithms used when adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing whole numbers. There are pages for both teachers ...

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TIMES Module 8: Number and Algebra: subtraction of whole numbers - teacher guide

This is a 16-page guide for teachers. This module continues the consideration of whole numbers.

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Decimals

This is a website designed for teachers and students in year 5, and addresses components of the working with decimals topic. It is particularly relevant for comparison, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division with decimals. There are pages for both teachers and students. The student pages contain interactive ...

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Percentage discounts

This is a website designed for both teachers and students that refers to making connections between percentages, decimals and fractions, as well as calculating percentages and percentage discounts from the Australian Curriculum for year 6 students. It contains material on calculating percentages of an amount and calculating ...

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Fractions in the real world

How many quarters make up a whole? Watch this video to find out how else you can represent 2/4 and how to add up quarters to make a whole.

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MathXplosion, Ep 11: Fun facts about the number seven

Did you know that the digits on opposite faces of dice will always add up to seven? Use dice as fun tools to reinforce fact families of seven, multiples of seven and subtraction skills.

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BTN: What is the GST?

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a tax placed on things people buy with money or things people do for money. Can you name some goods and services that have GST? What about some goods and services that don't have GST? Find out when and why the GST was first introduced.

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Self Improvement Wednesday: The beauty of prime numbers

A prime number is a number that only has two factors: one and itself. Listen to Adam Spencer and Richard Glover discussing prime numbers. They cover how we define these numbers and how and why prime numbers are widely used in internet encryption.

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Patterns, primes and Pascal's Triangle

Are you intrigued by patterns? Check out Vi Hart as she explains how to visualise patterns in prime numbers, using Ulam's Spiral. Watch as Vi creates patterns, using Pascal's Triangle to explore relationships in number. See what happens when she circles the odd numbers. What rule does she use to create the final pattern?

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MathXplosion, Ep 17: Develop mathematical mind-reading skills

Amaze your friends with your super mind-reading skills. Here’s a brain game you can play by asking a few questions and substituting letters for numbers! Learn to follow a specific sequence of arithmetical steps to always arrive at the same answer.

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Catalyst: Prime numbers and unbreakable codes

Imagine if anyone was able to read all our secret, encrypted messages and information. Watch and find out how scientists at the Australian National University are developing a new encryption system using quantum physics and quantum computing.

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Catalyst: Prime number keys

Have you ever wondered how modern day encryption works? How are messages and financial transactions kept hidden from cyber criminals and hackers? Listen to reporter Ruben Meerman and mathematician Simon Pampena discuss the largest prime number ever found and how prime numbers are used to encrypt electronic information.

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What is a quarter?

What is a quarter? You get quarters when you divide a whole into four equal parts. Each one of these four parts is a quarter. Watch this great explainer produced by Monique in collaboration with ABC Splash and see how she explains quarters.

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Home energy use

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions and sustainable energy use and are two of the major issues facing the world today. This project explores energy use in homes, and compares individual energy use with the class average and calculate and graph CO2 emissions.

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Catalyst: Small scale measurements

What units of measurements do we use to describe incredibly small things like blood cells and atoms? Watch as you are taken on a journey to explain the different units of measurement that we use to describe the very small.

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MathXplosion, Ep 6: Zero the hero

What is the role of zero as a placeholder for large numbers such as 1 million, 1 billion and 1 trillion? Find out about the notion of place value and powers of ten through the act of bead counting.

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MathXplosion, Ep 1: Magic 9s

Follow these simple calculations to illustrate the special properties of the number 9. Pick your favourite number between 1 and 9 and multiply that number by 3. Add 3 to your answer. Multiply the result by 3. Treat your two-digit answer as two separate numbers and add them together. No matter what number you pick to start ...

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Numbers Count: What are factors?

What are factors? Watch as the jelly babies in this clip show you! What are the factors of 12? How many factors does the number 11 have? Try explaining to a friend what a prime number is.

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MoneySmart: It's raining cats and dogs...and chickens?

This is a year 6 mathematics unit of work about keeping pets. The unit is intended to take about 12 hours of teaching and learning time, and is recommended for near the end of the school year. It consists of an introduction, seven sets of student activities, and teacher notes. The student activities include building a word ...

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Introduction to binary

This sequence of lessons focuses on what a binary number is, what a decimal number is, why binary numbers are important in digital systems and how to read and understand a binary number.

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Making maths quizzes 1: Plan and test our programs

In this sequence students plan, create and edit a program that will ask maths questions that are harder or easier depending on user performance.

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Making maths quizzes 2: Implementing a digital solution

In this sequence students implement a digital solution for a maths quiz. They test and assess how well it works.

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Multiplying and dividing decimals

Learn how to multiply and divide decimals by 100. Based on this video, see if you can work out how to multiply and divide decimals by 10 and 1000. What do you get if you multiply 0.375 by 10?

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MathXplosion, Ep 40: Kaprekar's operation

Did you know that 6,174 is a very mysterious number? In 1949, the mathematician Dr Kaprekar from India devised a process now known as Kaprekar's operation. First, choose a four-digit number where the digits are all different. Then rearrange the digits to get the largest and smallest numbers these digits can make. Finally, ...

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The difference bar: go figure

This tutorial is suitable for use with a screen reader. It explains how to split up numbers in your head when finding the difference between two numbers such as 26 and 73. Work through sample questions and instructions explaining how to use linear partitioning techniques. Find the difference between pairs of numbers. Split ...

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Literacy and numeracy improvement: a whole-school approach

This teacher resource describes how 74 public schools in metropolitan, regional and rural Western Australia used three major components of the school improvement cycle to achieve significant improvement in the literacy and numeracy learning outcomes of their students. The resource is organised in nine sections: Summary, ...

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What's the problem: nature: level 2

Star as a contestant in a quiz show! Select three worded mathematical problems, about nature, from two categories: 'plants' or 'animals'. Identify the correct answer for each step in the problem-solving process. Examine the suggestions made by the panel to help you. Collect a prize based on your score.

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The divider: with or without remainders

Solve divisions such as 147/7 or 157/6 (some have remainders). Use a partitioning tool to help solve randomly generated divisions. Learn strategies to do complex arithmetic in your head. Split a division into parts that are easy to work with, use times tables, then solve the original calculation.

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Wishball: hundredths

Test your understanding of decimal place value with numbers that include hundredths. Receive a starting number, such as 46.87, and work towards turning it into a target number, such as 85.32. Spin a random digit, choose its decimal place value and decide whether to add or subtract the random digit from your starting number. ...

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Circus towers: square stacks

Work out how many acrobats are needed to form square-shaped human towers. Start by building a square tower with four acrobats: two acrobats in the base layer and two acrobats standing on their shoulders. Examine a table and graph of the total number of acrobats in the towers. Predict the number of acrobats needed to build ...

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Playground percentages

Help a town planner to design two site plans for a school. Assign regions on a 10x10 grid for different uses such as a playground, canteen, car park or lawn. Calculate the percentage of the total site used for each region. Use a number line to display fractions and equivalent fractions.

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The foul food maker: go figure

This tutorial is suitable for use with a screen reader. It explains how the use of simple words can describe the likelihood of everyday events. How likely is an event: certain, likely, equal chance, unlikely or certainly not? Answer some questions using these words and then build your own examples. Learn how to describe ...

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Fraction fiddle: hit the apple

Help an archer to hit an apple with his arrow. Build two fractions to make a total of one whole. Complete the numerators of both fractions (they may have fixed denominators). For example, work out how many quarters and how many eighths can be added together to total one whole. Look at fraction bars and a number line to ...

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Cassowary ecology quiz

Explore facts about the life of cassowaries: physical characteristics; diet; habitat; life cycles; and locations. Interact with graphs to see how much people can help cassowaries. Work through ecology notes and resources. Answer questions as you go; express your answers as fractions. This learning object is one in a series ...

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reSolve: Reconciliation data

This lesson prompts students to examine data from the Reconciliation Barometer report, collect their own local data and compare with the national findings. Students discuss the meaning of reconciliation, explore statements from Reconciliation Barometer report, design a survey to collect local data relating to the statements ...

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Fraction basics - Easy & Effective Fractions Tutor - iTunes app

Learn about the core concepts of fractions through 12 animated clips. View the clips on the topic that you want to learn about. These clips will help build a string foundation in fractions. Free when reviewed on 12/5/2015.