Watching and talking
The purpose of this resource is to provide suggestions to whānau about how they can facilitate maths conversations while watching sports events on TV.
About this resource
This section provides some ideas for how you can raise awareness and share mathematics using everyday experiences and resources found around your home. It includes ideas for supporting your children’s learning in all areas of mathematics: geometry, measurement, statistics, algebra, and number.
This page provides suggestions as to how mathematics conversations can be facilitated at home when watching sports games or events on TV.
Watching and talking
Sometimes the best maths discussions can happen when you are just sharing some time together watching a game or event on TV. You can encourage mathematics thinking by asking questions or by wondering aloud.
- I wonder what the score will be if we score 3 tries and 2 conversions.
- How many more runs will they need from the last 2 overs?
Motorsport provides opportunity to talk to your child about time (hours, minutes, and seconds) and distance (metres, kilometers). Games like rugby are great for practicing the 5x table (tries), 2x table (conversions), and 3x table (penalties). Cricket and netball provide statistics in percentages. Games that are played in halves and quarters provide the opportunity to talk about fractions. When charts or tables come up on the screen, ask your child to explain what they see or explain how you get information from the numbers.
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