Articles & Videos

How to make the most out of iMaths Online tools

Paper airplane

Subscribe to our newsletters

Receive teaching resources and tips, exclusive special offers, useful product information and more!

Subscribe

Back to articles & videos

How to make the most out of iMaths Online tools

iMaths 2/11/20

“student-answering-question-in-classroom“

Note: iMaths is in its final year and will be discontinued at the end of 2024. If you’re looking for a primary maths resource written for the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0, explore Maths Trek.

Searching for ways to enhance your maths lessons using the tools from iMaths Online? Look no further. The four versatile tools – Spinner, Hundred Board, Number Line and Clock – can be used for countless activities. We’ve collated a few ideas to help you get started!

Find the iMaths Online tools in the navigation bar on both the teacher and student sites. Use the teacher site for teacher-led activities, or instruct students to log in to the student site to complete activities independently or in small groups.

Spinner

General purpose: Use the Spinner to teach probability by customising the number of segments and segment features (colours, letters and numbers) to suit your activity. Take the opportunity to discuss fair and unfair, chance, and probable outcomes.

Lower years game: First to 4

Instructions

  1. Customise the Spinner into three equal segments – green, red and orange.
  2. Divide your class into two groups and provide each group with four counters and a sheet of paper that has a grid with four squares.
  3. Spin the Spinner for group 1, then group 2, and continue alternating spins for each group.
  4. If the Spinner lands on green, students in that group add a counter to a square on their grid. If the Spinner lands on red, students in that group remove a counter from their grid. If the Spinner lands on orange, then no action is taken.
  5. The first group to fill their grid with four counters wins.
Lower years game: Corners

Instructions

  1. Customise the Spinner into equal segments of different colours. Display a matching piece of coloured paper in each corner of your classroom.
  2. Ask students to move to one of the classroom’s coloured corners, then spin the Spinner.
  3. Whichever colour the Spinner lands on is the ’safe’ corner for students. Students in the other corners sit down as they are now out of the game.
  4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 with the ‘safe’ students until there is one student left standing – the winner.

Variations

  • Customise the Spinner to have 5 or 6 segments and double or triple one of the colours to increase its probability.
Middle–upper years game: 100 or Bust

Instructions

  1. Ask students to draw a blank version of the table below in their maths exercise books or on scrap paper.
  2. Customise the Spinner into six segments labelled 1-6 and spin the Spinner.
  3. Ask students to choose a column in their table to write the spinner result, either in the Tens or Ones column.
  4. After seven spins, have students total their tables. The winner is the player closest to, but less than, 100.

Sample table:

Variations

  • Play ‘1000 or Bust’ using a table divided into Hundreds, Tens and Ones. The winner is the player closest to, but less than, 1000.
Hundred Board

General purpose: Use the Hundred Board to teach your students place value, number patterns, skip counting, prime numbers, addition, subtraction and so much more.

Lower years game: Missing numbers

Instructions

  1. Fill the row of numbers 1 to 10.
  2. Ask students to close their eyes while you click a couple of numbers to make them disappear from the board.
  3. Ask students to open their eyes and tell you which numbers are missing.

Variations

  • Increase the rows of displayed numbers to 20, 50 or 100.
  • Identify missing numbers as odd or even.
  • Students count on and count back from the missing numbers by 1s, 2s, 5s or 10s.
  • Ask students questions, such as: What’s 10 more than the missing number? or What’s 10 less than the missing number?
Middle–upper years game: Roll to 100

Instructions

This is a two-player game. You can either select two players to compete in front of the class, or have two students pair up with one device logged in to the student site.

  1. Fill the Hundred Board with numbers 1-100.
  2. Ask player 1 to roll a pair of dice and add the numbers together. Use the highlight function to mark the result on the board.
  3. Next, player 2 rolls the dice and adds their numbers to player 1’s result. Use the highlight function to mark the new result on the board.
  4. Continue alternating players, each adding their numbers to the previous player’s totalled result on the board. The player who reaches 100 (or more) on their turn is the winner.

Sample game:

Variations

  • Play ‘Subtract from 100’ where player 1 starts from 100 and subtracts the numbers. Alternating turns, the player to reach 1 (or less) on their turn is the winner.
Number Line

General purpose: Use the Number Line to show your students how to add and subtract a range of intervals as either whole numbers, fractions or decimals.

Lower–middle years activity: exploring intervals

Instructions

  1. Set the Number Line intervals to Ones.
  2. Choose any number on the line.
  3. Ask students questions, such as: Which number comes before? or Which number comes after? or How many more to get to X?
  4. Count forwards and backwards as a class from your chosen number to further explore intervals of one.

Lower years variations

  • Adjust the intervals to Twos.
  • Adjust the intervals to Tens.

Middle years variations

  • Adjust the intervals to Fives.
  • Adjust the intervals to Quarters.
Upper years activity: Exploring intervals

Instructions

  1. Set the Number Line intervals to Tenths.
  2. Choose any point on the line.
  3. Count up and down with the fraction setting on.
  4. Count up and down with the decimal setting on.

Once students are familiar with counting up and down in fractions or decimals, use the Number Line to explore equivalence between fractions and decimals. For example:

  1. Set the Number Line to the decimal setting.
  2. Choose any point on the line, for example 7.2, and ask students: What is the equivalent fraction?
  3. Repeat using different points on the Number Line, and switching between the decimal and fraction settings.
Clock

General purpose: Use the hands of the Clock to show 12-hour format, 24-hour format, analogue and digital times.

Lower years activity: Analogue practice

Instructions

  1. Make different times using the analogue Clock and ask students to tell you what the time is.
  2. Provide multiple opportunities to practise with the short hand ‘on the hour’ and ‘off the hour’.

Tip: Explain to students that when the short hand is ‘off’ the number, you simply need to look for the last number the short hand pointed to, to know what the hour is.

Upper years activity: Digital and analogue practice

Instructions

Although this is a whole-class activity, have students log in to the student site and open the Clock so they can display their answers to you. Ask them the following questions:

What would be the time 10 minutes before/after X?
What would be the time 30 minutes before/after X?
What would be the time 1 hour before/after X?
What would be the time 12 hours earlier/later (12-hour and 24-hour formats) than X?
If the time shown is in Queensland, what time is it in Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne?

More iMaths articles & videos