Instructions of how to construct three different triangles.

A nice activity to spark discussion about the properties of shapes.

A set of Starter Cards on powerpoint from the wonderful liverpool maths team. The idea is that you print out the cards, laminate them, and use the prompts on the back to engage the pupils in a stimulating discussion.

Practice basic transformations whist playing golf.

Pupils predict where an extra square would go to give the shape a line of symmetry.

Same again, but this time with two brackets.

An activity in recognising fractions of shapes.

MEI has kindly shared the following resources to support the use of ICT in A/AS Level maths. These are practical activities that look at how we can use Autograph to enhance the study of e, ln and functions, predominantly at A2 level. These are ideal for use in a computer room or for students to investigate at home. The pdf file contains full instructions and challenges, and the attached Autograph and Excel files can be used to demonstrate and consolidate understanding back in the classroom. Please click on the web-link to find out more about the work of MEI.

MEI has kindly shared the following resources to support the use of ICT in A/AS Level maths. These are practical activities that look at how we can use Geogebra to enhance the study of differentiation and integration (calculus) at AS level. These are ideal for use in a computer room or for students to investigate at home. The pdf file contains full instructions and challenges, and the attached Geogebra files can be used to demonstrate and consolidate understanding back in the classroom. Please click on the web-link to find out more about the work of MEI.

MEI has kindly shared the following resources to support the use of ICT in A/AS Level maths. These are practical activities that look at how we can use Geogebra to enhance the study of e, ln and functions, predominantly at AS level. These are ideal for use in a computer room or for students to investigate at home. The pdf file contains full instructions and challenges, and the attached Geogebra files can be used to demonstrate and consolidate understanding back in the classroom. Please click on the web-link to find out more about the work of MEI.

A brilliant Tarsia activity by Gill Hillitt on iteration. These type of activities can be used to consolidate understanding of a given topic, and foster positive group work and co-operative learning. For more ideas on how to use these types of activities (including twists!) and to download the latest version of the wonderful free software to open this resource (and create your own), just click on the web-link. If you have any comments or feedback for Gill, please share them below.

Earliest recommended Year group: Year 10. Pupils need to work out the area of a couple of rings with different dimensions - but the same area. This is from the “Something in Common” collection of resources by John Burke. They allow consolidation of key skills, prevent students from copying each other (as all the questions are different), make marking and assessing easy for the teacher (as all the answers are the same!), and provide a lovely extra challenge for students as they try to figure out exactly what is going on! To access the full collection, and read John’s background notes, please visit: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/common.htm

Have a play around with this task, and please share any questions, extensions, simplifications, modifications, or lines of inquiry in the comment box below. The idea is to collect loads of suggestions that can then be used for effective differentiation. The full set of these tasks, along with additional notes, can be found here: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/blog/probing-maths-questions-index-page/

A Tarsia activity on finding the percentage of an amount. These type of activities can be used to consolidate understanding of a given topic, and foster positive group work and co-operative learning. For more ideas on how to use these types of activities (including twists!) and to download the latest version of the wonderful free software to open this resource (and create your own), just click on the web-link. If you have any comments, or spot any (non deliberate!) mistakes, please share them below. Many thanks to all the teachers who have helped me assemble these Tarsias over the years.

A brilliant Tarsia activity by Gill Hillitt on the equations of circles. These type of activities can be used to consolidate understanding of a given topic, and foster positive group work and co-operative learning. For more ideas on how to use these types of activities (including twists!) and to download the latest version of the wonderful free software to open this resource (and create your own), just click on the web-link. If you have any comments or feedback for Gill, please share them below.

Earliest recommended Year group: Year 12. From clues given about a geometric progression work out the possible solutions - all common ratios are the same and first terms are five times each other. This is from the “Something in Common” collection of resources by John Burke. They allow consolidation of key skills, prevent students from copying each other (as all the questions are different), make marking and assessing easy for the teacher (as all the answers are the same!), and provide a lovely extra challenge for students as they try to figure out exactly what is going on! To access the full collection, and read John’s background notes, please visit: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/common.htm

A series of challenging problem solving questions from Canada. Tricky, but good.

Have a play around with this task, and please share any questions, extensions, simplifications, modifications, or lines of inquiry in the comment box below. The idea is to collect loads of suggestions that can then be used for effective differentiation. The full set of these tasks, along with additional notes, can be found here: http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/richtasks.htm

A brilliant Tarsia activity by Gill Hillitt on trigonometric addition formulae. These type of activities can be used to consolidate understanding of a given topic, and foster positive group work and co-operative learning. For more ideas on how to use these types of activities (including twists!) and to download the latest version of the wonderful free software to open this resource (and create your own), just click on the web-link. If you have any comments or feedback for Gill, please share them below.

A brilliant Tarsia activity by Gill Hillitt on trigonometric identities for Core 3. These type of activities can be used to consolidate understanding of a given topic, and foster positive group work and co-operative learning. For more ideas on how to use these types of activities (including twists!) and to download the latest version of the wonderful free software to open this resource (and create your own), just click on the web-link. If you have any comments or feedback for Gill, please share them below.