We’ve had a bit of an obsession with factorising quadratics with a coefficient of x squared greater than 1 at school this week so I produced this codbreaker to add a fish pun to the mix. They do get quite challenging but that’s kind of the point…

Two fish jokes to find: one on quadratics graphs and one on other curves. Ideal for classroom in real life or online and also homework tasks.

Two fish-related jokes to find: one for factorising and one for completing the square/using the quadratic formula. These work nicely in class, online or as a homework.

Yet another fish pun (this one was made up by me!) involving expanding and simplifying two brackets with surds. Students seem to like these in all setting and I have used these in the classroom, during online lessons and as a homework so they are pretty versatile.

Another fish pun/gag solved by solving the (linear) simultaneous equations graphically. In each case one of the lines is drawn (although it is not clear which one so students will have to work that out too) and they have to draw the other. These work nicely in class, online or as homework and the groans over the jokes are a wonder to experience!

Solve the simultaneous equations and reveal the joke; ideal for either in class, online or as a homework task. The students like the competition of unveiling the punchline first.

Five worksheets with fewer questions than answers given allowing students to start and be reassured if their answer appears in the list of potential solutions allowing teacher to help those who really need it. The sheets get increasingly challenging from simplifying, basic rationalising, calculating, expanding brackets and rationalising “full on”!

Convert the area and volume units to reveal the punchline to a joke related to the ocean. These work in the classroom, online or as a homework and students seem to enjoy them, especially the competitive side of discovering the punchline first.

Answer some questions involving negative numbers in context and reveal a joke involving or related to fish. These work well in the classroom as a starter or main task but also online or as a homework. The students seem to enjoy the challenge of discovering the corny joke too!

Four sheets where there are 6 questions but 10 potential answers; students are reassured by the answers being on the sheet allow the teacher to get on with helping those who require it. The sheets get increasingly difficult; I tend to use these as starters or as an initial task straight after the explanation.

State the inequalities that bound the shaded region and discover the punchline to the fish-related gag. These seem to work either in a classroom, online or as a homework task, encouraging some competition for those who enjoy it.

Answer the questions involving density, mass and volume to reveal the punchline to a joke. These work well as either class activities, online school activities of as a homework and students seems to like the challenge and competition to find the punchline first.

Students are given a set of lines and have to solve the simultaneous equations; some need to be rearranged as well. I tend to use this as a starter or right at the beginning of a topic as the answers are there allowing students who understand get on and the teacher to help those who require help.

Three sets of questions where the answers appear on the sheet as well; this allows for the students who are understanding the topic to know that they are because their answers are on the sheet already, leaving the teacher to help those who need it. There are 3 sheets in total of increasing difficulty. I tend to use these at the start of a topic or a starter before moving on to the next stage.

Use one calculation and place value to answer the other questions; these sheets contain 10 answers for 8 questions so that guesses are avoided but students know that if their answers are in the table then they are likely to be heading in the right direction.

This was left over from ages ago and I’ve finally got around to finishing it! Name the inequalities represented on the the graph given the shaded region basically. Answers are on the sheet so that students can just get on unless they are completely stuck.

Two fish jokes to discover by understanding y=mx+c and the properties of parallel and perpendicular lines; these are useful for in class, online classroom and homework.

Use place value to find how many times larger one digit is from another and then find the difference between them. This idea was floated on Twitter by Dave Taylor (@taylora01) and full credit goes to him for the idea and I hope this does it some justice.

A PowerPoint with three graphs drawn on each of 8 slides of increasing challenge, moving from linear through to quadratics, cubics, reciprocals and exponential graphs. On each slide there are equations to match to each graph plus extra equations so that it adds more challenge; there is a blank grid so that the equations that don’t match can be sketched.

Two fish jokes to find involving gradients: one short one with lines and one where students have to find the gradient between two points. These work in class, online or as homeworks and seem quite popular.