Jargon buster: 'Nouns' to 'objects'

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N

Non-fiction

A broad category of texts that includes anything that isn't fictional/made-up (information books, reference materials, newspapers, biography, Wikipedia, and so on).

Activity: Fiction and non–fiction (Age 9–10)

Non-unit fraction

A non-unit fraction is a fraction where the numerator is greater than 1.

For example: ⅔ is a non-unit fraction, because the numerator is 2.

Noun

A noun names a person, place or thing.

For example: apple, dog, team, chair, happiness, beauty.

Test whether something is a noun by seeing whether a determiner in front of it makes sense.

For example: 'The apple', 'my dog', 'their team', 'her chair' and 'that beauty' would all make sense in a sentence, but 'the reads', 'those cuddly', 'her went' would not.

Common noun: A noun that refers to people or things in general.

For example: Dog, tree, bridge, chair, beauty, excitement, advice, bread.

Proper noun: A noun that identifies a particular person, place or thing. Proper nouns begin with capital letters.

For example: James, Africa, Friday, December.

Noun phrase: A phrase with a noun as its head, or key word.

For example: The ball was lost.

A noun phrase can be expanded by adding words before or after it.

For example: The ball by the fence was lost. The red cricket ball by the fence was lost.

Video: What are nouns?

Activity: Word game (Ages 5+)

Number bonds

Pairs which make up a total. The number bonds for 7, for example, are 3 + 4, 2 + 5, 1 + 6 and 0 + 7. Children will practise remembering these at schools. Help them practise at home.

Video: Early maths skills: number bonds

Number line

A visual image used in almost all classrooms to help children grasp the basic number relationships. Children will use a number line to count forwards and backwards, in, for example, 1s, 2s and 10s, depending on the scale of the number line.

Activity: Number line races (Age 10–11)

Number square

A number square is a visual image used in almost all classrooms to help children grasp the concept of number and place value.

Download a free number square.

Numerator

The top number of a fraction is called the numerator. The numerator tells us how many equal parts there are.

For example: In ½, the numerator is 1.

O

Object

The object of a verb is who or what is acted upon by the verb. In a statement, the object is usually the noun (or noun phrase or pronoun) just after the verb.

For example: The bird pecked the apple. The bird pecked it.

OFSTED

The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills is the organisation appointed by the government to inspect schools in England.

One-to-one correspondence

Being able to match one object to one other object or person. Children need to learn one-to-one correspondence in order to be able to count. This can be practised in a number of different play situations, such as laying the table, or setting out a tea party. For example, each person at the table needs 'one' cup.

Order of operations

Mathematical operations include addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The order of operations describes the order these should be carried out within a calculation: multiplication and division, then addition and subtraction, working from left to right. Calculations inside brackets need to be completed first.

Video: What is BODMAS?

Activity: Problem solving: Operations (Age 9–10)

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