Home > Student activities > National Maths Day > National Maths Day 2013 > Lower primary activities
Lower primary activities
The activities for lower primary students reach out beyond the personal.
Each activity is prompted by questions likely to be of interest to your students.
The Your place in the world activities involve collecting data from school about languages other than English which are spoken at home, and exploring the provenance of family foods. The data about the languages is collected through the use of simple survey techniques, and the data about food sources through discussion and existing knowledge. Students use a variety of methods to display the information collected: graphs, lists, tables, maps. They interpret the data to answer the questions posed.
The About our world activities emphasise the interpretation of secondary data. Students collect data on weather forecasts both local and national, and use that data to predict the weather, identifying what clothing and activities might suit. They also look at the weather across the world and then focus on Malawi, its climate, food and culture.
There are supporting worksheets, links to helpful online resources plus ideas for extension. You can also download the online teaching notes.
Your place in the world: Family origins
Students gather data from school about the languages (other than English) spoken at home. They display data on maps and graphs and interpret the data to make conclusions about their school.
Your place in the world: Neighbourhood food
In this activity, students draw on knowledge of their local community. They discuss different food sources such as farms, orchards, markets, delis, cafes, and shopping centres that their families use. They represent their findings on a map.
About our world: Weather, food and culture
Students look at the weather across the world and compare it to Australia. Students focus on the country of Malawi and compare its weather, food and culture to their local area in Australia.
About our world: Weather prediction
Students examine previous data of the weather in their local area. They compare their local weather with data across Australia.
Students make predictions about what the weather will be like in different parts of Australia based on the data they have viewed.
