We had to come up with a “taster” lesson for Year 11s thinking about doing Maths or Further Maths A Level. We decided on this as it is something they will have heard of, isn’t on the Further or Additional Maths GCSE and relatively straightforward in its initial stages. There is a PowerPoint and a codebreaker.

This is aimed at lower ability but could also be used for higher ability. It combines maths and drawing as you have to sketch what the monster should look like given the properties. The first two have specific numbers, the second two offer a variety of answers and was intended (by me) to lead to discussion, but you could use it however you like!

A student gave me the title (pun on 'The Hunger Games' - original was 'The Number Games'), I did the rest. Five different sets of questions in a functional style for students to work through either individually or in pairs/teams.

This is split into four parts: finding scale factor, enlargement with no centre, enlargement with a centre, enlargement on a co-ordinate grid. It is supposed to scaffold up from basic to relatively difficult, but not too difficult! Typos corrected...

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

I got this idea from DaveGale (thanks by the way!) and the QR Code links to a video of Homer Simpson on YouTube. I used the website qrstuff.com to generate the original code then deleted some bits so that the kids needed to answer the questions correctly etc. It gives them a real reason to have their phone out too!

This takes students through basic shapes (rectangles and triangles) to trapeziums and parallelograms and finally circles, including compound shapes. I use these as starters or plenaries but use them how you like.

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 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!

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).

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)

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

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.

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.

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.

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").