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 bearings, averages, expanding and simplifying brackets, angle problems, transformations, proportion, simultaneous equations, similar shapes, indices, surds, circle theorems, algebraic fractions amongst other topics. Questions are from Edexcel past papers.

This covers sharing in a given ratio, simplifying and recipes. Each spider has challenges for discussion when seeking solutions. Designed to encourage discussion.

I was teaching Year 10 and realised that something like this would have been useful… so it’s the usual thing: answer the questions, reveal the cheesy joke.

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).

If you've done these before it follows the same pattern. If not, you show the screen for 30 seconds, they look in silence (without writing anything). They then get everything down on paper. Show the screen a few more times. Judge at the end. Instructions are on there.

This is for KS3 or low ability KS4 - I have put 2 versions on: one including my face and one with smileys. You can obviously swap the pictures for your own. I thought it might make simplifying expressions a bit more fun!

Help secret agent Jim Pond get soke important documents from arch enemy Ernest Stavros Blowfield by solving the cluess to their whereabouts.

A simple worksheet to practice reading and writing numbers in standard form using the calculator context. I have included the Word documents but the text might not appear in "calculator font" as I had to download a special font (just Google "Calculator Writing Font" and it's the first link and free from a company called "Digital 7").

Another set of four "spiders" to encourage discussion regarding shapes. It starts with naming polygons, moves on to triangles, quarilaterals and finally 3D shapes.

This is a pretty simple idea for various abilities where you display a graph and the class have to write down all that the graph tells them, in full sentences! I have included a couple of misleading graphs too, which adds a bit of differentiation.

I had this idea whilst driving home tonight thinking that I could do with some more stuff on bearings. The idea is for student to practice all the skills involved in bearings problems (angle properties on lines, around a point, triangles and parallel lines as well as scale) and then move on to solving some actual bearing problems. I have designed it in the shape of a wall to show that we build up to the summit. Obviously with this topic, scale is more of an issue but I hope it’s useful… (error corrected)

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, ratio, percentages and averages 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. I haven’t used logos to avoid any copyright issues. Hyperlinks added…

Match the questions with the correct answers regarding simplifying indices.

Three “Crack The Safe” activities on formulae: substituting and two one rearranging (the second one is harder than the first, involving the subject appearing twice). These contain six questions but three possible answers for each question on the rearranging with there being ten possible answers for the six questions on the substitution; 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.

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, percentages, fractions, ratio, angles, equations, equations of lines and other topics. I will be using these as starters to get students thinking from the off and will produce more if they work!

This takes students through everything they will need to know about sets and Venn diagrams, building up to the hardest type of question (hence the name).

This KS4 quadratic graphs worksheet is Lara Croft themed. Work out the equation of the graph that needs to be programmed in to make Laura swing and then plot the other two graphs from the equations given. This is an attempt to bring quadratics into the world occupied by students.

Answer the questions, match to the letters and get a fish-related joke. These are useful in class, online or for homework; students seem to like them too despite the quality of the jokes…

Six "spiders" on probability. The first two are basic, the middle two are two events (independent) and the final two are two events (dependent). Some "legs" answer questions, some legs give the answer and ask for the question. They have been split this way so that you can use different "spiders" with different classes. These should encourage discussion and questions such as "Is that the only answer?" which should demonstrate understanding. Typos corrected.

Erica is struggling when she has negative and fractional indices to expand using the binomial expansion. Can your class help her out and explain what she's done wrong please? Designed to demonstrate deep understanding and to encourage discussion in class.