Engaging code breaker activity in which pupils work out the decimal division questions for each letter and decode the hidden joke. Answers sheet included. The joke should read "What do you call a sleeping bull? A bull-dozer!"

Fun and engaging class game based on the old TV show Blockbusters, with questions on how to read values from a scale. Split the class into two teams, blue and white. The blue team must try to create a connected blue line from left to right, the white team must try to do the same from top to bottom. Click on the letters to link to the questions, if the answering team gets it right then click “Game board” to get back to the start, and click on the appropriate colour for that team to turn the tile blue or white.

Full lesson plan on how to add and subtract negative numbers. Topic is explained initially through putting in and then removing -1’s from a number to show how the sums decrease then increase. This then moves into the ± and – rules. There are many practice questions for independent work, with some worded extension questions followed by a GCSE style question for everyone to attempt. The lesson is summed up with a “Spot the Mistakes” plenary to help catch out some misconceptions. Pupils must identify where the mistakes are (if there are any) and provide written feedback on how to improve. EDIT: I have added in a second plenary option, an Always Sometimes Never activity to encourage discussion and mastery and help uncover misconceptions.

NOTE - For some reason the preview for the powerpoint lesson plan seems to show the formatting weirdly (some textboxes look too small etc.), however when I download it and open the file it looks just as it should. Complete lesson on teaching pupils to take readings from scales (including decimals), with both Powerpoint and SMART Notebook versions. Fully differentiated worksheet included, with a slide of extra challenging questions to display on the board and stretch the upper end of the class. Blockbusters game included as an alternative activity. I have broken down the process of reading the scales quite a lot, you may wish to delete that part from the example slides and set it out yourself if you have your own preferred way of teaching it. I would also recommend checking to see if the starter questions need adjusting for your class, though I have tried to keep them quite generalised.

Full lesson in powerpoint for multiplying negatives. This lesson is primarily aimed at pupils who have not seen the topic before or have little memory of it, as it includes full explanations of the rules for multiplying and dividing negatives. It is however easily adjusted for more advanced pupils and includes GCSE style questioning at the end, and reflective questions that make pupils consider what would happen should they need to multiply several negatives together.

A fun and engaging codebreaker activity in which pupils must answer questions involving adding and subtracting negative numbers in order to crack the code and reveal the joke. Ideal for consolidating skills, pupils will race to complete this task and delight in telling you how terrible the joke is. Answers are included, as is the original Publisher file to allow for easy editing should you wish to do so. Joke should read once completed: “How do you get two whales in a car? Start in England and drive west!”

Engaging negative number multiplying and dividing activity sheet that is ideal as either independent classwork, consolidation for numeracy skills or as cover work. Pupils must answer the questions and shade out the answers in the grid above. When they have finished they should reveal the number 381

A differentiated worksheet for division using bus stop method. Pupils can choose which section (out of 3) to attempt based on their own confidence. In the red section the "bus stop" has been set out for the pupils for all except the last four questions. In the amber section pupils need to set it out for them, with a worded question at the end. In the green section the first few questions give decimal answers, followed with some worded questions leading up to some multi step problems.

Engaging negative number addition and subtraction activity sheet that is ideal as either independent classwork, consolidation for numeracy skills or as cover work. Pupils must answer the questions and shade out the answers in the grid above. When they have finished they should reveal the number 187.

Fun and engaging blockbusters activity for the classroom based on the classic TV show. This particular activity is designed to help pupils consolidate their knowledge of dividing decimal numbers. Split the class into two teams and assign each one to be either blue or white. Each team takes turns to choose a letter that will then reveal a question. If they get the question right make the tile their colour by clicking the blue or white boxes on each tile. The blue team win if they make a connected row across the screen, and the white team win if they make one going down. Because the blue team have another tile to complete, they should go first.

Fun and engaging class game based on the old TV show Blockbusters, with questions on how to add and subtract negative numbers. These range from fairly basic ones, to questions that cross 0, to ones with three numbers to add or subtract. Split the class into two teams, blue and white. The blue team must try to create a connected blue line from left to right, the white team must try to do the same from top to bottom. Click on the letters to link to the questions, if the answering team gets it right then click “Game board” to get back to the start, and click on the appropriate colour for that team to turn the tile blue or white.

Fun and engaging classroom bingo activity based on order of operations questions. Questions include negatives and square roots, so pupils should have a good understanding before playing this game for consolidation in class. Printable grids included for pupils to fill out.

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.

Fun and engaging class game based on the old TV show Blockbusters, with questions on using the order of operations. These range from fairly basic ones, to questions including square roots, and cubing. Split the class into two teams, blue and white. The blue team must try to create a connected blue line from left to right, the white team must try to do the same from top to bottom. Click on the letters to link to the questions, if the answering team gets it right then click “Game board” to get back to the start, and click on the appropriate colour for that team to turn the tile blue or white.

Treasure hunt activity on expanding brackets to consolidate class learning. Print off the cards and put them in various places around your classroom, the pupils then pair up and start at different places to try and work out what order the cards should go in. They do this by answering the questions, and then finding the next card which will have that answer on it at the top. Comes with printable sheets to record their card orders on.

Complete differentiated lesson plan for division with bus stop method. There are differentiated questions in the powerpoint, but I have included the complete worksheet they came from and a treasure hunt activity as alternatives for consolidation should you prefer to use them.

Fun and engaging bingo activity on finding the median of a dataset for use in the classroom, ideally to consolidate learning that has already taken place. Printable grids included for pupils to use. Questions include those with even frequencies and involving the order of negative numbers.