Welcome to
The Number Crew, a TV series from Channel 4 designed to meet
the numeracy needs of 5 to 7 year olds. The programmes are grouped
in termly units and are devised to support and inspire the teaching
and learning of numeracy through 3-D animated stories, 2-D animated
songs, presenter-led studio sequences and real-life images. The
maths content is based on The National Numeracy Framework.
Each
programme has a specific mathematical focus, closely related to the
content of the National Numeracy Framework, which state schools in
England will normally be following from September 1999. The
programmes will be equally applicable to the teaching of
mathematics to infants in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. The
thirty 10-minute programmes for each Infant year-group are divided
into three units: ten on Numbers and the Number System, ten on
Calculations, and ten on Solving Problems, Measures, and Handling
Data.
The
programmes and associated support materials can be used as a
lively, integral part of a mathematics lesson. By providing
animated stories, songs, graphics and real-life images, they are
excellent foci for whole-class teaching.
At the
beginning of each programme, the action takes place on board a
luxury cruise ship the SS Mathematical, where the human
Number Crew look after the needs of twenty charming but demanding
animal passengers. In each episode, as the ship's journey
continues, the Number Crew encounter a mathematical problem that
needs to be solved. Viewers are encouraged to join with the Number
Crew in identifying the mathematical concept at the heart of the
problem, and developing the mental strategies and skills required
to solve it.
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