I was asked to teach a friend’s child how to add and subtract fractions from the basics up to adding fractions with similar denominators. This is what I came up with, using colouring in rectangles to help. I hope it’s useful.

The students are given the answer and asked to fill in the gaps in the question. Topics used involve probability, algebra, fractions, percentages, ratio, speed, distance, time and many others. Some of the questions allow for multiple answers so discussion could be had. Designed to be used as starters/plenaries to get the grey matter moving. The Easter theme runs through every question and is a tad tenuous at times but there you go.

This is designed to get students thinking rather than just blindly following a mathematical recipe. There a four sets of 4 problems which all have the same answer (given in the centre of the screen). Each question has a blank for the students to fill in and sometimes there is more than one answer for the blank. This particular one covers probability,fractions, ratio, angles in polygons, solving equations, sequences, area and other topics. I will be using these as starters to get students thinking. One error corrected in the answers! (I need to read the question.)

Six questions with ten possible answers - students can self-mark these (if their answer is not an option they need to check their working). This involves 3D Pythagoras and trigonometry with a cuboid, a triangular prism and a square based pyramid. I would use this as a starter or plenary.

This idea is from Craig Barton and is an excellent one (check them out his at website); essentially it is four questions based on the same information. There are four here which use fractions, percentages, probability, ratio, volume, money, upper and lower bounds, speed, standard form as well as other topics. This really should create discussion and a deeper understanding of the topics covered on top of ensuring that students actually read the question. I hope these are worthy! I will be using these as starters or plenaries.

Six questions with ten possible answers so students can self-mark these questions (if their answer is not an option they need to check what they did). This involves facts about 2D and 3D shapes including edges, vertices, number of sides etc. I would use this as starter or plenary.

Three “Crack The Safe” worksheets: the first tackling “one a line, around a point etc”; the second tackling “parallel lines”: the third tackling “angles in polygons”. These are designed to be used as starters or plenaries and allow students to self-mark as the answers are on the sheet (along with some values that are not answers) - if their answer isn’t on the list of possible answers they need to check their working.

More cheesy jokes for students to discover using their mathematical skills; these are a nice plenary, starter or main activity offering something different from exercises from books. The jokes, whilst terrible, only make them keener to discover the punchline oddly.

The usual cheesy joke; these offer an increasing challenge as students work through them and seem popular (certainly in my classes). Some are partially factorised which makes the students think.

Relatively new to the GCSE/IGCSE syllabus and I didn’t have much stuff so I wrote some. The first one takes us through different types of question (including a volume one or two) plus a codebreaker with a joke that one of my students made up (not as bad as it possibly sounds).

The world’s increasing population means that Santa has to run a rotation system for his reindeer to stop them getting over tired. This means six question and eight answers for students to solve so that Santa can select his reindeer. These offer a self-checking, festive feel to maths lessons (my Year 11 liked them anyway). Topics include Inequalities, differentiation, functions (substitution, inverse and composite), simplifying indices, solving quadratics (both factorising and non-factorising), simultaneous equations, rearranging formulae and others. We were told to teach until the holidays (fair enough) so I did this…

Twenty four differentiation questions where students are asked to find the gradient of a curve at a given point, order the words associated with each answer in order to form a festive joke. The joke is particularly cheesy; I apologise…

Another cheesy joke generated by doing some maths, this time it’s listing integers that satisfy an inequality.

Factorise and solve the quadratic equations to reveal the punchline to a (lame) joke.

The usual lame joke having done some maths; the formulae aren’t overly taxing but do involve powers of negatives. They are now formulae and not expressions.

Ten Maths Advent Calendars on various topics including solving linear equations, differentiation (both available separately if you want to see what they are like), indices, substitution, functions, ratio, percentages, equations of line, calculating with fractions and Bidmas. Each has 24 questions whose answers are numbered from 1 to 24 (1/24 to 24/24 in the calculating with fractions one) and when the solutions are placed in order a joke is revealed. These have gone down well in my classes and tick the “proper work right up to the holidays” box too. The jokes are pretty lame but that’s part of it!

This is a booklet of around 180 worksheets covering the GCSE Maths course, each with an accompanying QR code to a short video for those who need a reminder of how to do the questions (the videos aren’t solutions to the questions on the sheet but to similar questions). There are answer sheets at the end so answers can be checked. This includes new elements of the GCSE including iteration, frequency trees, Venn diagrams and other topics. Each section (Number, Algebra, Geometry and Data) is available individually but if you want the whole booklet then this is for you.

These cover new topics on the GCSE curriculum including Venn diagrams (Given that…), iteration, algebraic proof, expanding three brackets and others plus some gaps plugged from the original bundles. Each sheet contains questions and an accompanying video which is accessed via a QR code; the video is reasonably short and covers a couple of examples of similar questions on the sheet.

I’ve called this an “Advent” calendar as I couldn’t think of a better name, but I have little intention of using it in the run up to Christmas only. There are 24 questions which you can choose to display; students have a go and can then check their solutions with the model answer slide. Topics include forming/solving equations, estimating the mean, equations of lines, trigonometry, tree diagrams, transformations, standard form, angles, compound interest, bounds, geometric sequences, completing the square amongst other topics. Questions are from Edexcel past papers.

This does exactly what ot says on the tin; I want my classes to get used to using multipliers instead of “divide by 100, multiply by the percentage you want” in readiness for percentage calculations later on in the curriculum. This is not the most challenging but offers an opportunity for students find multipliers. It is a great joke mind you.