Mathematics is not a subject for a few "clever" people. It is a skill, like football or cooking, and everybody gets better with practice. You already use mathematics every day: when you count your change at the market, share groundnuts fairly with your brothers and sisters, or work out how long it takes to walk to school. In S1 we take those everyday ideas and make them sharper.
Read each lesson slowly with a pencil and an exercise book open beside you. When you reach a worked example, do not just read it: cover the answer, try it yourself, then compare. Then do every "Try this" task in your book before you answer the quick checks. Mistakes are not a sign that you are bad at mathematics; they are how your brain learns. When you get something wrong, find the exact step where it went wrong and do it again.
Study a little every day: one lesson of about 20 minutes is better than five lessons in one night. Learn the new words (like numerator, integer, quadrant) as you meet them, and always check your answers, for example by changing back to base ten or by estimating first. At the end of each topic, the Activity of Integration gives you a real problem from everyday life in Uganda. Take your time, show your working in full sentences, and be proud of what you can do.
- 💧 A glass of water before you start
- 📵 Phone on silent, one subject at a time
- ⏱️ About 25 minutes, then a 5-minute break
- ✍️ Keep an exercise book for the “Try this” tasks
Term 1 4 topics
1Number BasesHow place value works in base ten and in other bases, showing numbers on an abacus, changing numbers from one base to another, and adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing in any base.
- Place value: why we count in tens15 min
- Showing numbers on an abacus15 min
- Changing a number in any base to base ten20 min
- Changing base ten to other bases, and base to base20 min
- Adding and subtracting in other bases20 min
- Multiplying and dividing in other bases20 min
- AOIActivity of Integration · auto-marked
2Working with IntegersReading and writing very large numbers, natural and whole numbers, directed numbers on a number line, the four operations on integers with the correct order, special numbers, divisibility tests, prime factors, HCF and LCM.
- Large numbers, natural numbers and whole numbers20 min
- Directed numbers on a number line15 min
- Adding and subtracting integers20 min
- Multiplying, dividing and the order of operations20 min
- Even, odd, prime and composite numbers; divisibility tests20 min
- Prime factors, HCF and LCM20 min
- AOIActivity of Integration · auto-marked
3Fractions, Percentages and DecimalsTypes of fractions, mixed numbers, working with fractions and decimals in real life, changing between fractions, decimals and percentages, recurring decimals, and solving everyday percentage problems.
- Types of fractions and equivalent fractions20 min
- Working with fractions in real life20 min
- Working with decimals20 min
- Fractions to decimals: terminating and recurring20 min
- Percentages20 min
- Real-life percentage problems: discount, profit and change20 min
- AOIActivity of Integration · auto-marked
4Rectangular Cartesian Coordinates in Two DimensionsDrawing and labelling the Cartesian plane, the x- and y-axes, reading and plotting points in all four quadrants, drawing and completing shapes on a grid, and choosing a sensible scale to plot a scatter graph.
- The Cartesian plane and its axes15 min
- Reading and plotting points20 min
- Drawing shapes on a coordinate grid20 min
- Completing shapes and finding missing vertices20 min
- Choosing a scale and plotting a scatter graph20 min
- AOIActivity of Integration · auto-marked