Sequences in contexts you may not expect… three slides each with four mathematical problems involving sequences of increasing difficulty. Couple that with a classic late 80s Belinda Carlisle single and you have a resource that could make a nice starter or plenary. Topics include angles in triangles, Pythagoras, averages and more…

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…

This does exactly what it says on the tin… needed for a session with Year 6.

Ten questions of increasing difficulty on sets and Venn diagrams; four possible answers are given for each of which three have common misconceptions that can be discussed in class. These are designed to encourage discussion.

Ten questions of increasing difficulty where four potential answers are given, but only one is correct. These are designed to encourage mathematical discussion in your classroom, where the incorrect answers are the focus of the discussion. These go from describing single transformations through to mapping coordinates to trigonometric functions but it is designed for GCSE or Further Maths Level 2 Certificate.

Six questiopns where students are given the answer but have to show the workings. There are two “challenge” questions but this is designed to force students to explain what they are doing mathematically.

Ten questions of increasing difficulty (you can choose which you do); four hypothetical students have had a go and one has got the answer correct with the other three making common errors. Not only should your class work out who got it correct but as an extension/part of the activity they could work out the misconception for the wrong answers. This involves lines, polygons, quadrilaterals, circle theorems and bearings.

Ten questions of increasing difficulty; four answers given but only one is correct. Can your classes decide who is correct and where those who aren’t correct have got their answers from? This is designed to create discussion over vector problems (and have worked in my classroom). Arrow changed in Q1!

Five pairs of graphs; students need to calculate where intersections with each other and axes are. I have produced a PowerPoint so the graphs can be displayed, but if you want a worksheet there is one of those too. The worksheet asks for turning points on the final set of graphs.

State which points (lettered) are invariant in each transformation and reorder the letters to find the punchline to a cheesy joke.

Casey is doing the AQA Further Maths Level 2 Certificate course; this is the homework for Chapter 1 involving Pascal’s Triangle, product rule for counting, solving equations (involving fractions) and algebraic percentage relationships. These are designed for students to discuss how to solve the problems given and appraise “Casey” regarding their understanding; I find these to be good at deepening understanding.

Casey is working through the AQA Further Maths Level 2 Certificate and has reached the Calculus chapter; however, Casey requires the help of your class. Spot the mistakes, correct them and explain where Casey has gone wrong. These work well for discussions in class.

Five slides each containing five problems which have either been answered correctly or incorrectly; students decide and justify their answer. This is designed to encourage discussion in class. Topics include simplifying ratio, sharing in a given given, simple proportion, algebraic proportion etc.

This is a simple codebreaker to ensure that students can write a worded number in digits; if they finish they can have a go at writing the numbers that aren't used in words. The joke is one I found online but does the job!

Includes one and two brackets for expanding, including simplifying as well. I wanted to have 8 trees in total so also put in a completing the square tree. Each tree has 3 or 4 questions of increasing difficulty; students choose their start and finish which should allow you to judge where to pitch your teaching; or you could just use it however you like.

Three sections, differing levels of difficulty on solving simultaneous equations by elimination. Nothing fancy, just a load of questions (and answers).

Answer the questions, which get progressively more difficult, involving one or more of the trigonometric rules to reveal an anagram for the punchline of a joke. My classes seem to like these, the cheesier the joke, the better and given that this is an anagram they cannot guess the order of the letters for the answer.

Find the missing coordinates on the functions to reveal the punchline to a joke. Most involve linear functions but there are others towards the end; the challenge increases as the questions progress. Useful as a starter, plenary or main task and students seem to enjoy finding the punchlines.

The mandatory terrible joke whose punchline is revealed by answering some questions involving circle theorems. Useful as a starter or plenary in my experience.

Three algebraic fraction codebreakers to solve with the usual terrible jokes. They are of increasing difficulty so choose the one appropriate to your needs.