Maths Mansion facts for kids
Maths Mansion is a fun British TV show that helps kids aged 9 to 11 learn about maths. It aired from 2001 to 2003 and was made by Channel 4. The show follows a character called "Bad Man" who brings children to his special house, the Maths Mansion.
Inside the mansion, kids learn and get tested on different maths topics every week. If they do well on the quiz, they earn a "Maths Card." The children can't leave the mansion until they collect enough Maths Cards. Sometimes they don't pass the test, which is shown in episodes like Angleman!.
During the show, another character named "Sad Man" often pops up. He seems quite happy, despite his name! Sad Man teaches maths in a creative way, using songs, puppets, and games. He has a puppet called "Decimole," who is a mole. Decimole is known for being a bit feisty. In the very last episode, Bad Man finds Decimole, and Decimole "kills" Bad Man in a funny, cartoonish way.
There were 40 episodes of Maths Mansion across four seasons. Each episode was about ten minutes long. The show also came with helpful guides and activity sheets for teachers and students to use in class.
Contents
Meet the Characters
The main characters in Maths Mansion are Bad Man and Sad Man, along with the kids who visit the mansion.
Bad Man
Bad Man is like a game show host who keeps the kids in his mansion. They can't leave until they earn enough Maths Cards from his quizzes. One of his famous sayings is, "No Leaving Without Learning." This phrase perfectly shows how serious he is about the kids learning maths!
Sad Man
Sad Man is a different version of Bad Man, but from the 1970s. He's a bit old-fashioned and wears a jacket with leather elbow patches. Sad Man often interrupts Bad Man's show with his own helpful broadcasts. These segments teach the kids how to solve problems and help viewers at home learn the maths lessons. Sad Man brings along several other characters, mostly puppets.
Sad Man's Friends
Sad Man's puppet friends include Decimole and Snorter the Pig. Sometimes, Sad Man even has other characters he pretends to be, like Angleman. Angleman is so important that one episode in Season 3 is named after him!
Other Characters
Besides Bad Man, Sad Man, and the kids, here are some of the other characters you might see:
- Decimole
- Miss Sniff
- Angleman
- Mr. Girhalf
- Third Bird
- Twelfth Elf
- Not the Great Big Hen
- Snorter
Episodes of Maths Mansion
Maths Mansion had four seasons, each focusing on different areas of maths.
Season 1: Numbers and Basics
Season 1 introduces you to the number system and basic maths ideas.
| Episode | Episode Name | What You Learn |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Not the Great Big Hen" | Multiplying by 10 and 100 |
| 2 | "Not the Big Hen Again" | Dividing by 10 and 100 |
| 3 | "The Deciworms" | Decimals |
| 4 | "The Negs" | Negative Numbers |
| 5 | "Decimal Aid" | Decimal Equivalents |
| 6 | "The Rounding Machine" | Rounding Decimals |
| 7 | "Get Some Fraction Action" | Dividing by Fractions |
| 8 | "The Whole Class Should be Expelled" | Percents |
| 9 | "The Queen of Tarts" | Ratios and Proportions |
| 10 | "Doing Time" | Elapsed Time (how much time has passed) |
Season 2: Simple Calculations
Season 2 focuses on how to do simple maths calculations.
| Season Episode | Total Episode | Episode Name | What You Learn |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 | "Take it Easy" | Mental subtraction (subtracting in your head) |
| 2 | 12 | "Nine Nits is all there's Room For" | Addition and subtraction up to 10,000 |
| 3 | 13 | "Breaking up is Easy to Do" | Multiplication |
| 4 | 14 | "You Ain't Nothing but a Hundred" | Multiplying 3-digit numbers by single digits |
| 5 | 15 | "Dividing we Stand" | Dividing 3-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers |
| 6 | 16 | "Double Digit Dating" | Multiplying double digit numbers |
| 7 | 17 | "Six Flat Worms" | Area (the space inside a 2D shape) |
| 8 | 18 | "Learn your Lines" | Parallel and Perpendicular lines |
| 9 | 19 | "Rectangle Delight" | Properties of rectangles |
| 10 | 20 | "Triangle Delight" | Properties of triangles |
Season 3: More About Numbers
Season 3 explores different types of numbers, like natural numbers (counting numbers), integers (whole numbers, positive or negative), and rational numbers (numbers that can be written as a fraction).
| Season Episode | Total Episode | Episode Name | What You Learn |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 21 | "The Return of the Big Hen" | Mental division by multiples of 10 |
| 2 | 22 | "Hundredths and Thousandths" | Ordering mixed sets of numbers |
| 3 | 23 | "Make and Break: Part 1" | Multiples and grid pattern multiplication |
| 4 | 24 | "Make and Break: Part 2" | Factors and prime numbers |
| 5 | 25 | "Do the Bottom Same as the Top" | Equivalent fractions |
| 6 | 26 | "More Fraction Action" | Finding fractions |
| 7 | 27 | "Percentigmole" | Fraction, decimal, and percentage equivalents |
| 8 | 28 | Proportionimole" | Ratios and proportions |
| 9 | 29 | "Sad Hair Day" | Column addition and subtraction |
| 10 | 30 | "Another Sad Hair Day" | Multiplication of decimals |
Season 4: Shapes and Space
Season 4 focuses on geometry, which is the study of shapes and space. It also teaches how to solve problems using these ideas.
| Season Episode | Total Episode | Episode Name | What You Learn |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 31 | "All the Way Round" | Perimeter (the distance around a shape) |
| 2 | 32 | "The Worms Return" | Area (the space inside a 2D shape) |
| 3 | 33 | "A Very Fine Pet is a Polyhedron" | 3-D shapes |
| 4 | 34 | "Better get back in Shape and be a Square" | Classifying quadrilaterals (four-sided shapes) |
| 5 | 35 | "Angleman!" | Measuring angles |
| 6 | 36 | "The X and Y Files" | Plotting coordinates (finding points on a graph) |
| 7 | 37 | "Makeover" | Recognizing translations (sliding shapes) |
| 8 | 38 | "Turning Points" | Recognizing rotations (turning shapes) |
| 9 | 39 | "On Reflection" | Recognizing reflections (flipping shapes) |
| 10 | 40 | "Pie Pie Everyone" | Pie charts (circular graphs) |
