1. NZ Maths
  2. Supporting professional practice
  3. Curriculum elaborations
  4. National Standards Illustrations
  5. Year 3
  6. Counting The Beat: Year 3

Illustrating the Mathematics Standards

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Counting The Beat: Illustrating the year 3 standard

The following examples of student work illustrate achievement at the mathematics standards for year 3.
 

The task used in this illustration was part of a music unit and was used to introduce the students to rhythmic notation before they composed a piece for percussion.

The task relates to achievement objectives for Number from the mathematics and statistics learning area in The New Zealand Curriculum.

The Task

Counting The Beat

Most pop songs and classical music pieces have an underlying crotchet beat or pulse. 

  1. With a classmate, use the symbols below to fi ll your 4 x 4 grid so that each square is the equivalent of a crotchet beat:

     
  2. Clap through your grid, counting the underlying beat as you do so (that is, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 …)
  3. How many notes of each type would be used if your grid was clapped or played three times?

Some features of students’ work used to make judgments in relation to the mathematics standards are described below. There is also an illustration of the year 4 standard, an illustration of the year 5 standard, an illustration of the year 6 standard and an illustration of the year 7 standard for this task.

New Zealand Curriculum: Level 2 National Standards: By the end of year 3
In solving problems and modelling situations, students will:
Number and Algebra
  • use simple additive strategies with whole numbers and fractions (number strategies)
  • know the basic addition and subtraction facts (number knowledge)
Number and Algebra
  • apply basic addition facts and knowledge of place value and symmetry to:
    - combine or partition whole numbers
    -     find fractions of sets, shapes, and quantities

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PDF of this task and Illustrations of the year 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 standards (1.78MB)