Mathematics / Year 6 / Number

Curriculum content descriptions

identify and describe the properties of prime, composite and square numbers and use these properties to solve problems and simplify calculations (AC9M6N02)

Elaborations
  • using the definition of a prime number to explain why one is not a prime number
  • testing numbers by using division to distinguish between prime and composite numbers, recording the results on a number chart to identify any patterns
  • representing composite numbers as a product of their factors, including prime factors when necessary and using this form to simplify calculations involving multiplication such as \(15 \times 16\) as \(5 \times 3 \times 4 \times 4\) which can be rearranged to simplify calculation to \(5 \times 4 \times 3 \times 4 = 20 \times 12\)
  • identifying and describing the product of a number with itself as square; for example, \(3 \times 3\) is the same as \(3^2\)
  • using spreadsheets to list all the numbers that have up to \(3\) factors, using combinations of only the first \(3\) prime numbers, recognise any emerging patterns, making conjectures and experimenting with other combinations
General capabilities
  • Numeracy Numeracy
ScOT terms

Composite numbers,  Perfect squares,  Prime numbers

Interactive

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 ...

Interactive

Sites2See – number for primary

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