Year 5 Maths Challenge

On Monday 7th November, four pupils were chosen to represent St. Olave’s Prep School in a ‘Year 5 Maths Challenge’. Ajmal, Emily, Matthew and myself (Rania), went by mini bus with Miss Brown to Old Palace of John Whitgift School in Croydon, to compete against many other schools.

Matthew and I, and Ajmal and Emily were paired up, then we all competed in five different challenges.

The first challenge Matthew and I competed in was called “Broken Calculators.” In this challenge we only had a few numbers we could use on a calculator to come up with the answer shown. We found some of the questions in this challenge a little bit tricky.

The next activity was named “Tricky Triangles”. We were given small shaped triangles which we had to make them fit into many larger shapes. It was quite challenging but in the end we understood what to do. 

Our third challenge involved a deck of playing cards. By adding two cards together, we had to make various given numbers. 

“Dominos” was the fourth challenge. You had to put the domino counters on top of the right numbers on a grid. If there was a five & six next to each other on the grid, we had to find a domino that had a five on one side and a six on the other. This challenge was a bit frustrating at first but we soon got familiar with it.

Our last challenge was called “Catch The Train.” This was about train timetables. We had to answer questions about the timetable that they gave us. This challenge was really fun because Matthew and I understood it straight away so it was quite easy.

After all the pairs had finished the five challenges, the judge added up the scores and the winning schools were announced. 

The afternoon was a really interesting and exciting experience, in which we learnt a lot about teamwork and how to use maths in everyday situations.

By Rania 5H