Order of Operations (BIDMAS) Mastery

Complete order of operations resource that should last over two lessons (perhaps three), but there is a suitable ending point at about 1 lessons work if you do not want to spend longer on the topic.

Starts off with questions to check on misconceptions, followed by an explanation of the order of operations - you can choose to use the BIDMAS acronym if you wish, but it is not explicitly stated if you prefer not to use it. The operations are presented as a pyramid to show clear priority.

This is followed by questions for independent work of increasing difficulty and another task where pupils can choose between more calculations to work out or inserting brackets to make equations correct.

After this, some examples and questions bring square roots in to increase depth, including some questions where pupils need to correct mistakes that have been made.

To round it all off, pupils can attempt the 4 Four’s challenge, where they attempt to make the numbers from 1 to 20 using exactly 4 four’s and any operations they like. The number 19 requires factorials so it has been done for the pupils to avoid needing to teach this - and the number 11 is also completed so they can see that square roots can be used, as well as putting 4’s together to make 44.

All answers are provided.