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
Number & Algebra

Addition: Partitioning

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

Australian curriculum number (ACMNA015)

  • Y1
Number & Algebra

Place Value: Number Sorting

Students sort one-, two- and three-digit numbers based on the place value of the digits in the number.

Australian curriculum number (ACMNA013)

  • Y1
Number & Algebra

Skip Counting: How Many Birds?

Students use efficient skip counting strategies to count a large number of birds in a picture.

Australian curriculum number (ACMNA012)

  • Y1
Number & Algebra

Algebra: Equivalence

Students use a number balance to determine equivalent number expressions. They then use blocks on balance scales to identify equivalence without numbers.

Australian curriculum number (ACMNA035; ACMNA036; ACMMG038)

  • Y2
Number & Algebra

Counting Large Collections

Students devise efficient counting strategies to count a large collection of unifix cubes. By counting in tens, they use the cubes to model place value.

Australian curriculum number (ACMNA028)

  • Y2