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Treasure Hunts

7 May

Treasure hunt resources are very versatile, with great advantages such as pupil engagement, reduced photocopying, easy differentiation, and pair work.

There is a wide range of ready prepared and differentiated treasure hunts available to download for free on our resource site here. All you need to do is download, print the resource, laminate and slice. These cards are then stuck up around the learning area for pupils to hunt down.

Here is a screen shot of just two cards from a higher level GCSE treasure hunt.  The amber cards represent the easier route, and the green would be the higher or more challenging route.

There are a number of ways to run a treasure hunt;

Classic

Post the cards around the room or outside or any space really! Pupils work in pairs and work either on the amber route or the green route. They can be given starting points or simply start on the card nearest to their seat. Pupils then answer the question at the bottom of the card, when they have the answer they then move around the room until they find the card with that answer on. The activity is over when a pair get back to the card they started on therefore have completed the route.

Follow Me

This is possible for the treasure hunts that do not include a diagram. Each pupil has a card and reads the question, the person with the answer states the answer and then reads the next question. Again this activity is complete when we return to the card you started with.

Card Sort

With the cards printed and laminated pupils work in groups to sort the cards into a loop. This is great for group discussion and I used it as part of a revision carousel.

Differentiation

The cards are easily differentiated with most having two levels of difficulty, you can add as many levels of difficulty you require for the class. In addition it is good to set a challenge for gifted pupils to create a treasure hunt for the rest of the class to complete as a plenary or starter activity.

Collect a Joke

Combine this idea with collect a joke by adding a word of the joke punch line to each answer, pupils collect the words as the go. This just adds an extra dimension.

We hope your class and yourself enjoy the ideas and if you have any more ideas we’ve not thought of we would love to hear them.

Maths Party!

15 Apr


Maths and party are not two words you often hear in the same sentence but party games provide us with some great ways to engage students in the classroom. Here are a few of my favourite ideas:

Pass the parcel:

A simple idea which is great for a starter. this works very much as the party game but each layer has a question selotaped to it, before students can unwrap their layer they have to answer the question! In the past I have asked each student to write a question on a slip of paper as a plenary, then I use these questions in the pass the parcel the following lesson. I have done this with GCSE groups too and used exam questions cut up from a past paper. Students to the left and right can peer mark the answer to check it is correct! I have my classroom organised into five tables so I make five ‘parcels’ so each table has one to pass around, but you could adapt this depending on how your room is set up. All you need is some music and a prize for the middle and away you go!

Musical Statues:

This requires the use of this powerpoint from our resource site www.numberloving.co.uk. You play the powerpoint and students have to make the angle with their arms when the music stops. Great starter or plenary for consolidating estimation of angles! You can easily change the music, currently you will be listening to some choice songs from my Year 8 class.

Balloon modelling:

Balloon modelling is an exciting venture for anyone, old or young, this powerpoint again from our resource site takes you through the steps needed to make a balloon dog. Students have to measure their balloon (bought cheaply from homebargains, be sure to leave a 10cm section at the end which is un-inflated) then work out and mark the fractions on (starting from the end which is tied), then they fold and twist. It really is simple and makes a great fun lesson when studying fractions of amounts, it could be adapted to work for percentages or ratio. You could also extend the idea and get students to investigate making some of their own models! The video below shows how to make the twists, if you have younger students you may want to do this for them:

Four corners

This is great for types of shapes or number types. In each corner of the room you have a picture of a shape or a number hung up. You call out a property such as ‘four vertices’ or ‘square number’ and students must go to the corner which fits that property. If students go to the wrong one they are ‘out’ and should sit down, you can make it progressively more challenging by having several conditions they have to meet.

Simon says

This is a classic which can be adapted for practising drawing shapes, you give an instruction – for example ‘simon says draw a horizontal line 4cm in length’ and students have to do it, you continue on in this way until they have constructed a shape, the catch is sometimes you give an instruction which does not start with ‘simon says’ in this case they should not follow it. Get ready for chaos!

Keep tuned as this week I will also be blogging about dance maths…

Anything but more past papers…

17 Jan

As it starts to wind up to exam season (for those of us with March entries) it’s a good idea to have an arsenal of revision activities at the ready. Past papers are great but there are many more ways to engage our students in meaningful revision. Here are numberloving’s favourites.

Revision Races

These are a great way to get students engaged, divide pupils into teams of 3, each team collects their first question from the front, when they have answered it they bring it to you. If they’re correct they get ten points and the next question, if they’re wrong they can keep trying but do have the option to pass at the cost of one point. This score board really helps keep them motivated if you can display it on the IWB. I would also recommend assigning points for good team work. There are some excellent examples on the TES, this one shared by Alipon and this one by George Stewart. I have used these templates to create an algebra version, a low ability version and a blank version, more to follow on www.numberloving.co.uk resources. If you don’t have time to write 20 questions and print then just cut up some old exam papers. Sorted!

Collective Memories

Collective memories are a great way to get students to remember and recall information. For more detailed notes on how they work and loads of free resources see here. If you get them to do an individual one then send it home with them to go on the wall in the bathroom!

Jeopardy

This is a great revision game, there are quite a few floating around on the TES, I have adapted the version shared here slightly. Students work in teams and take it in turn to choose a topic and a number of points (more points = harder question) if their team gets it correct they gain the points, if they get it wrong the other teams get a chance to steal. If you have mixed ability teams you can get some peer tutoring going on and it makes for a really fun lesson.

Jeopardy SATS revision

Jeopardy Equations Higher GCSE

Jeopardy Triangles Higher GCSE

Micro Teaching

I have done this a few times with great results, split your class into groups of three and give them a revision topic which they need to work on. Ask them to prepare a five to ten minute lesson on their chosen topic. The following lesson all groups have to deliver their lessons to the rest of the class. You can get in some peer assessment and develop soft skills (I show two clips at the start, one of Alan Partridge and one of Barak Obama to get them thinking about good presentation techniques!). I have two worksheets and a powerpoint produced by the students which I now use myself!

Key points flip book

This is a simple idea to encourage students to make some revision notes. Give them some squares of colourful paper and they have to go through each lesson in their books and write at least one key point or example from it. Then hole-punch and secure with a treasury tag and tell them to read it every night before bed!

Auction

I found and loved this resource on the TES, students first have to ‘bid’ for the equipment they think they will need and then answer the revision questions. This would make for a really fun and memorable revision activity which helps consolidate the use of equipment such as a ruler for drawing graphs and a compass for constructions.

CSI resources

I blogged earlier this week about Mysteries, my collection of CSI resources are here and make a great revision lesson. Although most of them are designed for KS3 they translate just fine for Foundation GCSE.

TES Revision Collection

My Barton himself has cherry picked some of the best revision resources on the TES and added them to this collection. Really worth a good look as there are some excellent resources in here.

Happy revising, if anyone has any other good revision ideas we would love to hear from you!

Battle of the Maths DVD-ROMS

17 Jan

I have always understood the appeal of Maths Watch, it is great for giving to students as an alternative to revision notes and guides. But I have always felt it was a bit rough around the edges. So when I saw the emergence of a CGP alternative MathsTutor I was first in line for a demo.

CGP MathsTutor is similar to Maths watch in that it contains mini video tutorials on each topic. However the tutorials are far more polished than their Maths Watch alternatives. There are a range of interesting graphics which keep you engaged and the explanations are that bit better thought through. In addition to the tutorials there is a worked exam question for each topic, this is really clearly explained and completed by an actual hand which I love. I know this may sound odd but I find it helps students to see problems completed by hand rather than animated or on-screen like in Maths Watch. There are the usual options of ‘higher’ or ‘foundation’ but there is also a ‘basics’ version which is great for very low ability, or to suggest to students at the end of year 9 to get them up to speed quickly for starting year 10.

All in all in the battle of the DVD-ROMS I feel that MathsTutor is the clear victor, you get a lot more for your £3.

More top technology based revision aids for your students:

www.edmodo.co.uk – set up a class and post all of your revision materials on here for students to download, you can also set a poll or quiz for them to complete to get feedback. They can also start discussions and ask you questions. Great!

Mr Buckton’s fantastic youtube channel with excellent video solutions to every past paper question you can imagine– direct your students here for extra support and yourself when you fancy getting someone else to do all the talking! Thank you to Mr Buckton to producing all these, amazing!

Mr Barton has a great section on his website which is devoted to revision notes for students, they are really pupil friendly and another great resource to send your students to.

Please remember numberloving do not endorse any products we simply express our own opinions and recommend things we like.

Grade C Intervention Evening- Including Exam Analysis

2 Jan

Schools are measured on the percentage of pupils gaining a grade C and above in 5 GCSE’s including English and Maths. Its important to note here that the other subjects that can be included in the 5 has changed see this previous post Modular Exams RIP for further details. 

We work hard for all our pupils not just those Grade C borderline students, we certainly try to “pull from the top, not the belt” (Laura Rees-Hughes’ quote). This “The Grade C Intervention Evening” is one of the strategies introduced by our Lead Intervention teacher Mrs Doyle , and we used it for those pupils that were borderline pupils. All resources are collated at the end of the post for those in a hurry.

Eligibility

Pupils were invited based on early entry results i.e. those that gained a grade D. In addition to those pupils professional dialogue was held with teachers to ascertain any other pupils who may not have gotten a D but still should be targetting a grade C and above or had the ability to gain a grade C.

Invites

Letters were sent to parents by post (during the evening email addresses were collected in a simple sign in sheet). We collected emails in order to keep parents informed, we are hoping to build upon this form of communication with parents. In addition text messages were sent to both parents and pupils, allowing parents to set reminders on their phones. As well as include parents in the TenMarks updates.

Preparation

In preparation we used EdExcel Results plus to download question by question analysis for the entire cohort. The analysis can be downloaded pupil by pupil but we found it much easier and quicker to download the whole cohort. Once downloaded as an excel file. You will find the analysis refers to questions by number, so we insert an extra column and describe (in pupil friendly language) what that question was about. We then colour code the cell depending on what strand eg. Pink= data handling. Using clever conditional formatting the marks gained by pupils per question is coloured either red, amber or green (green being they gained full marks). An example is here Example Exam Analysis (names of pupils omitted). Then hiding the other pupils we are able to print off a pupil friendly exam analysis which is both visual and informative.

AQA have a similar called Enhanced Results Analysis. Definitely worth checking it out with your exam board.

Evening

Our lead intervention teacher gives a brief presentation with keydates, revision and intervention opportunities available and gives guidance to to the web pages built and detailed in the revision Booklet which is printed and provided along with pupil analysis. Pupils and their parents/carers are then invited to take part in some mini lessons on key topics. We choose long multiplication as often parents are unfamiliar with the new techniques taught and Pythagoras’ theorem.

Here are the teaching resources we use for those two mini lessons.  Long Multiplication Grade C Evening, Mini Lessons Materials

Resources

Depending on your school budget you maybe able to provide students with a copy of the Foundation Mathwatch disks which can be purchased here. Alternatively, CGP have launched a simiar product which is (in number loving’s opinion) superior to Mathswatch, there are lots of worked exam questions and you can request a free sample here so see what you think (more to follow on this and some other exciting new bits and pieces from CGP). If your bugdget won’t stretch to that you can just order them in to sell on the evening, along with equipment such as a compass and calculator!

Booklet

Theses revision sites work better in Google Chrome and are linked within the booklet above.
Algebra Revision site, data handling revision site, number revision site, shape/space revision site, past paper site

sign in

Example Exam Analysis

Useful Webistes for revision

Long Multiplication Grade C Evening

Mini Lessons Materials

If you try any of these resources or you hold a similar event at your school we would love to hear from you!

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