Our two previous main lessons introduced the big ideas of Class 2: the times tables (and their patterns) and place value. In this new block, Sailors and Merchants, we revisit and deepen those foundations while bringing fresh wonder to the work!

Through story and number play, the children step into the world of sailors navigating the seas and merchants balancing and trading with care. Just as sailors must chart unknown waters and merchants weigh every exchange, students will explore number patterns in increasingly flexible and mental ways. Along the way, they will meet magic squares, square number patterns, and the curious discoveries hidden in the nine times tables. There are lots of hands-on counting and sorting, working together cohesively to solve the pirate problems.

A key focus of this lesson is helping the children hold and work with numbers in their heads, developing fluency in mental calculation and strengthening number sense. We are practising flexibility: solving number sentences forwards and backwards, and exploring the deep connections between opposite operations (addition and subtraction, multiplication and division).

The children are also beginning to build strategies for working with larger numbers. Instead of moving straight to vertical algorithms, we are encouraging them to solve problems left to right, guided by their strong understanding of place value.

In this way, the Sailors and Merchants main lesson strengthens foundational arithmetic skills while continuing to nourish imagination, curiosity, and joy in mathematics.