Brick by brick

Numberblocks
Season 1, Episode 12: "The Whole of Me" (5 minutes)
UK: Blue Zoo
CBeebies, Tuesday 28 November, 10:25

I can't imagine anything more difficult to teach than maths. To me, it's one of those things that you either get or don't get.

Numberblocks, the companion series to Alphablocks, takes on the challenge

The premise is very similar to Alphablocks: the characters are simple colourful shapes, and each episode takes the form of a simple routine in a vague sort of environment (any kind of plot or setting is stripped away to the bare minimum, so that it doesn't distract from the educational content).  In Numberblocks, however, each character represents a number, and their body is made up from the appropriate number of cubes, just like the interlocking cubes that we used in primary school.

Bits and pieces

This episode focuses around the concept of "number bonds" (pairs of numbers that add up to another number) which features on the Key Stage 1 maths curriculum.

The episode takes the form of a song, with each character taking turns to explain what pairs of numbers it is made from. They illustrate this by breaking up into the relevant number of blocks.

• "One" sings that 1 is the whole of her.
• "Two" sings that 2 is the whole of him, and 1 and 1 are parts of him.
• "Three" sings that 3 is the whole of her, and 2 and 1 are parts of her.
• "Four" sings that 4 is the whole of him, and 1 and 3 are parts of him, as are 2 and 2.
• "Five" sings that 5 is the whole of her, and 1 and 4 are parts of her, as are 2 and 3.

A little comedy is injected into the episode when Three doesn't co-operate, and instead sings about how she is the best number. One and Two look on disapprovingly, and Three apologises before singing the correct song.

Difficult concept

It sounds very simple, but I do wonder if small children would be able to follow it, because it's quite an abstract concept, and the episode is very fast paced. (It does recap the concept at the end of the episode, but very very rapidly). It is therefore probably only suitable as a supplement for children who have already been introduced to the topic at school.

Boring?

Overall, my criticism of this programme is much the same as Numberblocks. It is educationally rigourous (they have a PhD on staff as educational adviser), and ties in with National Curriculum requirements. However, I don't believe that children would watch it unless they were forced to, as it simply doesn't have enough of a plot, or look engaging enough, to hold their attention.


Available to watch online until 28 December 2017