Given the information on the bands A-ha, Depeche Mode, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Madness, can you argue who the best/most successful band of the 1980s was? This is designed to get students to think about relevant calculations to back up their argument. I have calculated some answers but won't have covered everything.

Designed as a starter for worded mathematical problems this involves a wordsearch where the answers all go into a table linking words like "sun" and "total" to addition etc. These are followed by a few questions.

If the answer's even colour in the square containing the question number, if it&'s odd leave it blank. The QR code created links to Depeche Mode&';s 'Get The Balance Right'; great tune, cheesy video!

A couple of statitstical graphs regarding the World Cup with some questions that I've come up with for my class(es); I&'m sure you could come up with different ones if you wish. The website I got them from is very USA-centric but interesting and could be used as a numeracy resource or cross-curricular stuff.

The title rather give the game away here; answer he questions, reveal the punchline to the joke. I like this joke!

Find which letter is positioned at the midpoint of the two coordinates given, unjumble the letters and reveal the punchline to a joke.

This is a simple linear graph exercise for fairly basic y=mx+c work, unless you chose to ban certain linear graphs like y=x or y=-x etc.

Plan Superman's journey around his jurisdiction to catch as many criminals as possible before running out of energy.

Can you spot which fractions shouldn't be in in picture?

I found the 'Research' section on the Sport England website and noticed that their graphs and charts are more aesthetically focused than useful. I therefore came up with this. There's loads of useful stuff on the website (which is hyperlinked in the powerpoint), especially the infographics bit in 'Who Plays Sport?'.

The usual terrible joke revealed having dealt with partial fractions with mixed numbers (a remainder) and partial fractions with (x+n)^2 on the denominator.

A relatively simple activity of putting X-Men's enemies into Venn diagrams, not using any of the notation.

The Perimeter Fencing Company like getting the best deal they can for their customers when they put a fence around a ploit, which means no wastage. Calculate the exact amount of fencing required for each plot.

Can you either sketch or find the equation of the function Trigonometric Man has left to make Frozone's life more difficult!

Four sets of four problems where students have the answer but there are blanks in the questions which require filling in. This is designed to create discussion in class and hopefully provides natural differentiation (stretch the “top end” by finding the general solution where possible compared to finding a single solution). I will be using these as starters or plenaries as I believe they will develop deeper understanding of topics, but feel free to use them as you like.

Four “Crack The Safe” activities on percentages. They work their way up from percentage of a number, through multipliers, percentage change and repeated percentage change. These contain six questions but ten possible answers meaning that students can self-check their answers (are they in the list of possible answers?) whilst the teacher can help those who require it. I use these as starters and plenaries but that is obviously up to you.

Two “Crack The Safe” activities on simultaneous equations: one on linear equations and one involving a quadratic or circle. These contain four questions but three possible answers for each question; this means that students can self-check their answers (are they in the list of possible answers?) whilst the teacher can help those who require it. I use these as starters and plenaries but that is obviously up to you with the wrong answers offering an opportunity for discussion about what I have done in order to get that solution. Typo corrected!

Wordy proportion problems - read carefully!

The usual thing: do maths, get cheesy joke. Students seem to like them and you can use them as starters, plenaries or part of a main activity.

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!