Assessing Mathematical Reasoning

These resources assist primary teachers in encouraging reasoning in their students and in conducting formative assessment of this Australian Curriculum: Mathematics proficiency. The resources include both professional learning and classroom materials.
Number & Algebra

Counting: Handfuls

Students take a handful of counters, count their handful, then find ways to organise their collection to make the total easier to count.

Australian curriculum number (ACMNA001; ACMNA002; ACMNA003)

  • F

Mathematical Inquiry into Authentic Problems

Ten inquiry units based around authentic real world situations. The aim is that students learn to use mathematics to help make sensible decisions, in response to the ill-structured and open-ended questions that are often encountered in life.
Number & Algebra

Number: One is a Snail

Students use the picture book 'One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab’ to explore how numbers can be represented in multiple ways.

Australian curriculum number (ACMNA001; ACMNA002)

  • F
Number & Algebra

Patterns in a Circle

Students explore colour patterns created with pom-poms in a circle. They look at how these patterns are similar and different.

Australian curriculum number (ACMNA005)

  • F
Number & Algebra

Patterns: Attribute Trains

Students use sets of attribute blocks to create attribute trains. This builds students' ability to recognise similarities and differences between objects.

Australian curriculum number (ACMNA005)

  • F

Reef Tracks

  • F
  • Y1
  • Y2
  • Y3
  • Y4
  • Y5
  • Y6
  • Y7
  • Y8
  • Y9
  • Y10

Spot the Maths

Students explore ways to describe the mathematics contained in photographs of everyday life.
  • F
  • Y1
  • Y2
  • Y3
  • Y4
  • Y5
  • Y6
  • Y7
  • Y8
  • Y9
  • Y10
Statistics & Probability

Statistics: Shoes

Students create a picture graph representing the shoes they wear to school, and use the graph to answer questions and make inferences.

Australian curriculum number (ACMNA005; ACMSP011 )

  • F
Measurement & Geometry

Woolly Worms

Students devise strategies to order collections of 'worms', first using worms made from pieces of wool then using worms drawn in chalk.

Australian curriculum number (ACMMG006)

  • F
Number & Algebra

Addition: Partitioning

Students explore all the possible ways to partition numbers into two parts.

Australian curriculum number (ACMNA015)

  • Y1