• Gain some relaxation time by accessing helpful maths resources.relax your boots image by bluefern from Fotolia.com
  
  Along with all your other subject activities, lesson planning for Key Stage One Maths can be a time-consuming job. Trying to come up with fresh worksheets, games and class ideas to teach counting, basic addition, subtraction and multiplication facts, measurements, shapes and telling time is a challenge. Luckily you do not have to start from scratch. A number of online resources exist to make your work day a little easier. Parents can access these sites as well to help their 5- to 7-year-olds understand mathematics more easily.
  
  

Worksheets

• Typing your own worksheets day after day is a near impossible task. The Project Happy Child website has literally thousands of worksheets for you to use instead. They are catered to the Key Stage One age group and are geared to help students learn basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts. The site also has helpful links for additional worksheets, puzzles and overhead templates. The Math Worksheets website offers a worksheet e-book that is free to download. The e-book contains useful templates you can use again and again, such as a times table grid, number lines, a shape identification sheet, a 1 to 100 counting sheet and some addition and subtraction puzzles.
  
  

Games

• Math games can be a useful tool to help students reinforce what they have learned in class. If you have computers in the classroom, students that finish in-class assignments can play an online game while the other students are working. You can also assign 10 minutes of math game play for homework. The BBC Schools website has numeracy games, some of which are geared toward the 5 to 7 age bracket. For example, when students play the "Bitesize" game, they can practice addition, multiplication, division, subtraction, place value, money concepts, measurement and other skills. They can choose between medium, hard and really hard levels. The game's humorous characters and visual and interactive aides are engaging for kids. Woodlands Junior School also has a maths game page. Some of the activities are more advanced than Key Stage One, but many of the games cover addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts, place value, number sequences, time, measurements, money, shapes and symmetry. With so many games from which to choose, you can let your students explore or select one for them to play that is relevant to the current curriculum. Several of the games involve students racing against the clock as they complete math equations.
  
  

Math Dictionary

• The Maths Dictionary for Kids site offers an interactive glossary to help students learn math definitions while completing a short challenge or exercise. For example, for the word "length," the dictionary includes the definition plus an activity for students to measure the length of three snakes. Under "time" students read the definition, then practice reading a watch-and-learn time facts. Some of the terms in the dictionary are too advanced for Key Stage One, but the entries that are appropriate for your students may be useful as visual reinforcers.