A task I designed to make my lesson on the area of a parallelogram a little more interesting! Students are given a variety of parallelograms where the side lengths are algebraic expressions. Students are given 9 possible values for x and have to substitute these values into the parallelograms, and then calculate their areas. Their aim is to create parallelograms with given areas. Solutions are provided.

A task I used with more able Year 8 students. Students are given decreasing arithmetic sequences - but most of the terms are missing. They must first determine the missing terms, and then work out the nth term. Solutions are provided.

I wanted something a bit more challenging for my more able Year 7s on the topic of ‘converting between Mixed Numbers and Improper Fractions’, so I put together this activity. Students are given a sequence of Mixed Numbers and Improper Fractions, and must tell me what (simplified) fraction must be added or subtracted at each step to reach the next number in the sequence. Solutions are provided.

Students have to find a path crossing left to right through the maze that only goes through correct answers. Diagonal moves are not allowed. Types of errors included: Forgetting to multiply the second term +/- mixed up x multiplied by x is 2x Variable changes Solution provided.

Inspired by “The Simple Life” - a task from Colin Foster: https://nrich.maths.org/13207 I wanted a simpler version to suit my weaker group. Students are given a variety of algebraic expressions in the form a(bx + c) and must pick 2 to add up. They are given 8 answers to aim for. Possible solutions are provided - there may be other solutions, I’m not really sure!

Designed to go with Chapter 2 of the Echo Express 1 book. Students have to look for opinions vocabulary in the Boggle-like grid (the words they’re looking for are provided). Unlike a normal wordsearch, you can go diagonally, sideways, backwards etc. to find the next letter in the word. An example of how to find the word “Erdkunde” (from a different Boggle I’ve made) is provided.

Designed to go with Chapter 2 of the Echo Express 1 book. Students have to look for school subjects vocabulary in the Boggle-like grid (the words they’re looking for are provided). Unlike a normal wordsearch, you can go diagonally, sideways, backwards etc. to find the next letter in the word. An example of how to find the word “Erdkunde” is provided.

Designed to go with Chapter 5 of the Echo Express 1 book. Students have to look for vocabulary based on objects you’d find in your room in the Boggle-like grid (the words they’re looking for are provided). Unlike a normal wordsearch, you can go diagonally, sideways, backwards etc. to find the next letter in the word. An example of how to find the word “Erdkunde” (from a different Boggle resource I’ve made) is provided.

An activity that gets students to practise finding fractions of amounts, which also introduces an element of problem solving. Students create their own questions. They pick a numerator, pick a denominator, and work out that fraction of the large number at the top of the screen. They’re aiming to create calculations with the given answers on the screen. Some students might pick their fractions completely at random, whereas others may approach things a bit more logically… There are 6 different activities, with varying degrees of difficulty. Some answers can be made via more than one calculation, but I’ve made a suggestion on how to complete each problem.

This is very similar to the excellent activity from danielabbott89 - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/mean-from-a-frequency-table-amazon-reviews-6323431 However, the products in that resource are now a bit out of date, so I wanted to make a resource that would have a bit more longevity. Students have to work out the average (mean) rating given by Amazon users to various products - the data is real! The data is presented as a frequency table. Solutions are provided (to 2 decimal places). A good resource to use in a poster-making lesson!

Used with an able Year 10 group as a way to revise factorising into single brackets. Students are given a partially completed multiplication grid with algebra, and must deduce what expressions go in the remaining boxes. As a starting point, look at the 3rd column: by factorising 6x + 8 and 15x + 20, we deduce that (3x + 4) must go at the top of this column. Solutions are provided.

Some questions on Bearings & right-angled Trigonometry that I designed for my Year 11 students. The worksheet is scaffolded - each question comes in a pair. In the first question, I have drawn the complete diagram for students. In the second question, the diagram has been drawn but not labelled - students must do this for themselves. Solutions are provided.

This Powerpoint covers the 5 Sampling Techniques covered in Chapter 1 of the Applied Textbook for Edexcel Year 12 / AS Maths, namely: Simple Random Sampling Systematic Sampling Stratified Sampling Quota Sampling Opportunity Sampling To try and make the content a little bit more interesting, I introduce these techniques using Skittles (eating them is a nice treat at the end of the lesson!).

Students are told the value of the top block in each pyramid. They have to create an equation to determine the value of x, by working their way up the pyramid - each block is the sum of the 2 below it. The first sheet contains only positive terms, but the second sheet introduces negatives. Solutions are provided.

A puzzle to make the topic of dividing in ratio a little bit more interesting, inspired by a similar Don Steward task: https://donsteward.blogspot.com/2014/11/mobile-moments.html The numbers along the top of the bars tell student what ratio to divide the top number in. For example, on question 4, you should split 42 into the ratio 3:4 and put the answers in the bubbles. They should then split their answer of 24 in the ratio 1:2. Solutions are provided.

This resource is for students who are confident with Linear and Quadratic Sequences. It covers: Finding the nth term of a linear sequence Finding the nth term of a quadratic sequence Generating sequences Verifying whether a given number is in the sequence Finding missing terms in linear sequences Full answers are provided.

28/09/22: New and improved Powerpoint uploaded! The lesson starts with a quick recap of square and cube roots which all have integer values. Students are then asked what the square root of 32 is. It’s not an integer, but we can find an approximate value by determining which 2 integers its value lies. Some examples of how to do this are given (which are fully animated), then there are some basic fluency questions which can be done on mini-whiteboards so you can assess student understanding. There is a slide of questions for students to work on independently in their books. To make things a little more interesting/challenging, there is also some work on solving basic quadratics provided. Rather than leaving the answers as a surd, I get pupils to give me approximate answers, so that they get some more practice estimating square roots! Answers to all questions are given, and no printing is required.

Students have to determine the roots, y-intercept and turning point of each of the given quadratic graphs using an algebraic method. The graphs are not drawn accurately, although I’ve tried my best to get them in roughly the correct position. Solutions are provided.

This worksheet (with 15 questions) guides students through the process of finding the equation of a tangent to a circle. I used this with a class of grade 5/6 Higher students, who I thought would probably struggle with the topic without any support. I’ve tried to make the worksheet gradually harder as students work their way through the questions - e.g. the y-intercept is mostly an integer, except for the final few questions. Full solutions are provided.

Students solve quadratic equations by completing the square, giving their answers in both surd form and as decimals. The answers are all jumbled up, and students must match the answers to the correct quadratic equation. There are a couple of quadratics where the coefficient of x is odd, and some knowledge of simplifying surds will be required. Solutions are provided.