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We’ve come up with just a few ideas you can use to mix your mathletes with your athletes in your class, and get all your students engaged with mathematical concepts using sports.
Rugby for Addition
This is a great idea for younger children who are learning about addition. By using the concept of rugby scoring (try = 5 points, conversion kick = 2 points, drop goal = 3 points), you can help your children practise adding up scores until they’re familiar with them. You could ask questions such as ‘if my team scores two tries and scores one drop goal, how many points do we have?’
When your students are more familiar with addition, you could make problems a little harder and give them a score for a game such as 47-26, and then ask your students to work out the various ways each team could score this total.
Sports Teams for Mode, Median, Mean and Range
A great way to mix sports with maths too is to use sports teams and print out a picture of each of their players. Include each of their heights or ages on the piece of paper and you can work out mathematical problems such as the mode, median, mean and range from these.
Sports Games for Calculating Money
Another fun activity you could do to mix sports with maths is to have a number of players on a sheet of paper with their worth underneath in pounds. You could ask your students to make a pretend ‘fantasy team’ and hire players using a mock budget you set for them.
Resources on EducationCity
Don’t forget about all the fantastic resources there are on EducationCity, in the Maths module, that use the theme of sport to teach maths!
Just type the ID number of each resource into EducationCity’s Search tool.
Learn Screens
Lower Key Stage 2
Sports Day: #12661 – A tutorial on calculating simple time problems in a sports context.
Upper Key Stage 2
Football Football: #12797 – Using a grid and line of symmetry to reflect triangles.
Football Football: #12810 – Using a grid and line of symmetry to reflect shapes.
Activities
Key Stage 1
Football Mad: #278 – Solve simple word problems set in real life.
Goals, Goals, Goals!: #25576 – Interpret different division vocabulary in order to divide 2, 5 and 10.
Lower Key Stage 2
Sports Day: #863 – Solve word problems involving time.
One Over Par: #12528 – Represent fractions on a number line.
Upper Key Stage 2
Football Mad: #486 – Simplify algebraic expressions.
Some Activities come with maths worksheets (also known as Activity Sheets), so don’t forget to check these out as extra resources!
To try out the resources above on EducationCity, log in and search for them. If your school doesn’t have a subscription to EducationCity though, sign up for a free trial.