ICSE Class 6 Maths, Unit 1: Number System

What this unit aims at

The idea about numbers that children built-up up to class V is of representing the number of items/objects in a collection. But in class VI children have to initiate the learning of numbers that are abstract which starts with negative numbers and extension of whole numbers to integers. This is the stage where the collection of integers is seen as a system that satisfy certain properties and have correlated structure. A preparation of the extension of fractions and integers to rational numbers also takes place in this class. A gradual move helps children in developing these concepts. Let children observe various patterns while applying operations on integers and fractions (common and decimals). Generalization of these patterns will lead to many properties of integers and decimal fractions. The multiples and factors of numbers can be obtained by just playing with numbers. Therefore, it is

Your child should be able to

• describe place and face values of a digit in a large number
• create situations around them in which they find negative numbers
• through situations like money transactions, measuring of height, budget, etc. child uses larger numbers and thus appreciates their use
• reduces fractions involving larger numbers to simplest (lowest) forms
• identify a situation for a given fraction (like proper, improper, equivalent, etc.)
• construct examples through which they demonstrate the addition and subtraction of integers
• create daily life situations where opposites are involved and represent such quantities by positive and negative numbers
• make their own strategies of ordering, adding and subtracting integers
• use divisibility rules to find factors of a number
• demonstrate ways of finding HCF and LCM of two numbers

Key concepts in this unit

• Numbers: Consolidating the sense of numberness up to 5 digits, size, estimation of numbers, identifying smaller, larger, etc.
• Numbers: Place value (recapitulation and extension., Operations on large numbers.
• Numbers: Word problems on number operations involving large numbers This would include conversions of units of length & mass (from the larger to the smaller units).
• Numbers: Estimation of outcome of number operations.
• Numbers: Introduction to a sense of the largeness of, and initial familiarity with, large numbers up to 8 digits and approximation of large numbers).
• Numbers: Numbers in Indian and International Systems and their comparison. formulating rules for operations on numbers.
• Sets: Idea of sets.
• Sets: Representation of sets.
• Sets: Types of sets: Finite/infinite and empty.
• Sets: Cardinality of a set.
• Comparison of fractions, Operations on fractions (Avoid large and complicated unnecessary tasks). (Moving towards abstraction in fractions).
• Review of the idea of a decimal fraction.
• Place value in the context of decimal fraction.
• Inter conversion of fractions and decimal fractions (avoid recurring decimals at this stage).
• Word problems involving addition and subtraction of decimals (two operations together on money, mass, length and temperature).
• Playing with Numbers Simplification of brackets.
• Multiples and factors, divisibility rule of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11. (All these through observing patterns. Children would be helped in deducing some and then asked to derive some that are a comb…
• Even/odd and prime/composite numbers, Co-prime numbers, prime factorisation, every number can be written as products of prime factors.
• HCF and LCM, prime factorization and division method for HCF and LCM, the property LCM ×
• HCF = product of two numbers.
• All the above concepts are to be embedded in children’s contexts so that it brings out the significance and provide motivation to the child for learning these ideas.