I felt like doing an A Level codebreaker and this seemed like a good topic to start with. Use laws of logarithms to reveal the punchline to a cheesy joke…

Whilst perusing Twitter after England's heavy defeat to Australia I came across this graphic posted by @skycricket which gave me the idea of using it for a maths discussion on data. You don&'t really need to know anything about cricket, just a basic understanding of statistics. It is designed to encourage some literacy and explanation.

Two “Crack The Safe” activities, one on reading Venn diagrams and the other using set notation. These are designed to be used as a starter or a plenary and allow students to self-mark as possible answers are shown but more that they require to avoid guessing.

One on a basic histogram and another using frequency polygons; the usual terrible jokes are revealed.

Another one of these; solve the quadratic inequalities and reveal the joke. Ideal for students at home or in school as the fact that it spells out a short sentence means that they know whether they are doing it right; they also like the competitive nature of getting to the end first in my experience.

Four “spiders”: two on midpoints, two on finding the distance between two points. Midpoints: some questions ask students to find the midpoint, some give the midpoint and one coordinate. Distance: the first spider asks students to find distance (the final question asks students to find a points a given distance from another point). The second gives one point and a length; this could lead to a discussion on Pythagorean triples. Suggested/examples of answers are given where there are multiple options.

Designed for the AQA Further Maths Level 2 Certificate, it struck me as we were covering matrices that a “fill in the blanks” sheets would (should?) work nicely with them. Hopefully I have come close to hitting the nail on the head… it involves multiplying and transformations.

These are an attempt to break from the monotony of past papers in the run up to exam season. I have taken 2 or 4 (depending on whether they will fit on a page!) questions from past papers and put them on one sheet; I will photocopy onto A3 for students to have a go in groups and discuss. The aims/rules etc are all listed if you wish to follow them and hopefully they all make sense. I have also provided answers.

The usual: Do some maths Get some letters Reveal a lame joke My classes like them, yours might too.

Some equations and inequalities to solve, using sketches where possible, to reveal the cheesy joke. I will be using this as a starter.

Find the invariant points, reveal the punchline to a cheesy joke… Useful for starters, plenaries and main tasks in my experience but use (or don’t use) however you like.

D (Data) A (Algebra) N (Number) and G (Geometry) - four bombs to defuse on each area, left by that infamous terrorist "The Mathematician". Each sheet has 6 sections and the questions are more worded. Find the average of the answers in each section to crack the code to defuse the bomb in each case. It's just general revision to get students thinking. It's easier to look at than put into words!!!

Written for the AQA Further Maths Level 2 Certificate but could be used at A Level too. This is the usual “answer the questions, reveal the anagram of the punchline” thing, being an anagram so that student don’t guess the order/answers. I like this joke but others may not…

Using the (in)famous Smiths Crisps advert from the mid-Eighties there are some questions based around units of measurement. Designed as a plenary.

The usual answering of maths questions reveals the punchline; my classes like these and in this time of remote learning they are easy to mark! This involves set notation with three sets in some questions. Mistake on the last question now corrected!

This time we combine ratio with fish puns; the first is basic sharing and simplifying, the second is some worded, slightly more challenging problems and each comes with a (slightly lame?) fish gag. Self-marking and useful as a starter, plenary or main task and this format worked well during online lessons.

Essentially this covers both direct and inverse proportion using everyday situations (currency conversion, recipes etc); when answered correctly a fish pun reveals itself. Ideal for an online task, homework, starter, plenary etc

Find the missing values in the coordinates given the equation. The joke is a classic but will make the students groan. These are ideal for class or homework tasks as the students will know whether they are going correctly because the words will begin to form; they also like the competitive nature of getting to the answer first.

Two codebreakers here, one one writing an expression from a worded situation (eg. “3 more than n”) and one on outputs from function machines. I needed something to introduce algebra to students who had never seen it before so came up with this…

Designed for the AQA Further Maths Level 2 Certificate course but could be used at A Level. Answer the questions, reveal the joke, you know the drill…