Teaching pack: Understanding equations at Year 7

Understanding equations at year 7 is the partner pack to Understanding algebra at year 7, and is designed to introduce your students to equation-solving and inequalities.

Featuring starters, main activities and plenaries alongside home learning opportunities and assessments, the pack contains question tasks, PowerPoints for class demonstration and discussion, worksheets and student activities.

These activities include: basic practice, error correction, jigsaw, application to 2D shapes and problem-solving, and explore the balance method, bar model, flow diagrams, inequalities and key vocabulary.

What’s included?
Starters, main activities, plenaries, homework sheets, assessments
27 resources
Answers

What’s inside?

Introduction (pages 3-4)

Section one: Short tasks (pages 5-12)
Teaching notes
Activities
1.1 Opposites
1.2 Trios
1.3 Which method?
1.4 Symbols
1.5 Bigger or smaller?
1.6 Where on the number line?
Answers

Section two: Developing concepts (pages 13-18)
Teaching notes
Activities 2.1-2.6 and answers in PowerPoint

Section three: Developing fluency (pages 19-48)
Teaching notes
Activities
3.1 Solving equations with flow diagrams
3.2 Solving equations
3.3 Be the teacher
3.4 Equations jigsaw
3.5 Forming and solving equations
3.6 Problem solving
3.7 The Rhind mathematical papyrus
3.8 Considering inequalities
3.9 Inequalities and the number line
3.10 Inequalities staircase
Answers

Section four: Homework tasks (pages 49-55)
Teaching notes
Activities
4.1 Completing equations
4.2 Equations investigation
4.3 Inequalities and types of number
Answers

Section five: Assessment (pages 56-63)
Equations assessment
Inequalities assessment
Equations assessment mark scheme
Inequalities assessment mark scheme