

This lesson bridges the gap between the physical and the abstract, guiding students to discover how letters and symbols act as placeholders for any number in a sequence. By moving from function machines to formal notation, students will master the ability to articulate and apply the logic of formal algebraic expressions through clear explanations, thought-provoking challenges, and engaging activities!
Knowledge and Skills Covered:
Knowledge:
I know that a variable is a letter or symbol used to represent a value that can change or is currently unknown. In this lesson, we focus on replacing the empty input box with a letter to create a general rule.
Skills:
I can translate a word problem into a formal algebraic expression or equation. In this lesson, we focus on writing out the rules of our function machines using letters (e.g., x + 5) instead of words.
What’s Included?
Your download includes everything you need for a successful lesson:
Unit Overview Notes: Outlines the knowledge, skills, and pre-requisites for the entire unit. This lesson is part of a 6 lesson unit, exploring ‘Can we use symbols and patterns to predict the unknown?’
Detailed Lesson Walkthrough/Notes: Includes a step-by-step guide with guiding questions and key discussion points.
Guiding Questions: Great opportunities for AfL throughout your lesson, designed to help your students draw on their previous learning and make purposeful connections.
Lesson Slides: Engaging slides to guide your lesson.
Lesson Activities: Includes accessible, low-floor high ceiling activities that all students can access through adaptive teaching, leading to improved confidence. There are also opportunities embedded in the lesson for further challenge to extend learners further and outlined strategies to enable learners.
Exit Ticket: A purposeful closing task which allows students to demonstrate their understanding, skills and knowledge - a great opportunity for AfL.
This download provides both the Editable PPT Version and the PDF Version.
Terms of Use: This product should only be used by the teacher who purchased it. This product is not to be shared with other teachers.
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