Four “show that…” questions that encourage explanations ahead of final answers (which are already given). These are designed to create discussion and get students to think about the steps they are taking.

This is designed to encourage students to explain their working rather than just read out an answer at the end. I have given an example of solutions but these are not the only solutions for each. This should encourage discussion too.

Answer the probability questions, link them to the probability scale and unjumble the punchline to a fish-related joke. These have worked really well in online lessons, but also work well in in-person lessons, despite the groans regarding the jokes…

Four “Show that…” questions involving inequalities; this is more about the method and workings than getting the final answer. This should involve good mathematical discussions.

There are four “Show that” questions: two linear equations, two quadratics. These are designed to encourage students to write down method and working rather than just reading out an answer at the end.

This involves simplifying surds, expanding two brackets with surds and rationalising the denominator. Some of the" answers" are not fully simplified to encourage students not to use a calculator more than absolutely necessary. This sheet is designed to encourage method/workings and my “possible workings” are just a guide, not a manual!

Six questions where students are given the question and the answer, their task being to add in the workings. The “possible workings” sheet are just there as an example, not as a concrete “it must be done like this”. These are designed to encourage working and method.

This is designed to encourage workings; students are given a correct addition or subtraction of fractions and have to fill in the blanks in th workings. I have included a “possible workings” files as well, but I don’t really want to force students down any specific road, only encourage them to get each stage down on paper.

Another fish related effort after finding the missing angles using circle theorems. Ideal for online lessons and in-person ones too; students like the cheesy jokes despite their protestations to the contrary.

Calculate the bearings and discover the punchline for a joke involving fish. These have worked really well in online lessons but also before with real-life lessons so enjoy!

Another fish-related joke after some standard form conversions and calculations. Ideal for online lessons but also in-person lessons.

Ten statements regarding a comparative bar chart; students decide whether the statements are true or false. Designed to create discussion and for use in online lessons.

There are 10 statements for students to decide whather they are true or false regarding a pair of box plots. This should encourage mathematical discussion and these sheets seem to work well online too.

Students are required to decide whether the 10 statements based upon a cumulative frequency graph are true or false. This is designed to create discussion but also with online lessons in mind.

This is a true or false activity designed to create discussion about stem-and-leaf diagrams. including using them to find the mode, median and IQR. These work well online but also in the classroom.

There are six “spiders” each with four increasingly challenging quadratics to solve, including completing the square and using the quadratic formula. Different blanks are left for students to fill in, working forwards to the solutions, backwards from the solutions, from partially complete questions and a mixture of all three. These have been very useful in online lessons.

Another fish-related joke to discover once the HCF and LCM questions are answered. These work well online but also in the classroom and the students seem to enjoy discovering the joke no matter how cheesy. The reassurance of the spelling of a word allows students to get on.

Students must answer the questions on simplifying ratios to reveal the punchline to a cheesy fish-related joke. These work well both in class and online as students who are confident just get on with the words revealed whilst teacher can help those who need it.

Two worksheets here; the answers appear on the sheet but there are just 6 questions but 10 answers to avoid guessing towards the end. These enable confident students to get going whilst a teacher can help those who are less confident. They have worked well online for me…

This is a version of the codebreaker with a fish/aquatic joke. Each of the 40+ comes with answers and provides students with a fun challenge that’s slightly different to working through exercises. These have worked well in online lessons. Topics include algebraic fractions, indices, compound measures, area and perimeter, ratio and proportion, equations of lines, inequalities, measures, volume, expressions and many more. Each of these is available individually for free.