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Crackers About Maths Teacher Hack- Part 2
Now that Autumn term is done or nearly for most in the UK, I just wanted to mention Christmas crackers, read all the way to the end!
I wouldn’t have thought, all those years ago as a child, when first pulling crackers with my family at the Christmas table that I would be putting some of their contents to excellent use as a Maths teacher. Often their contents is as quickly discarded as the ‘left over crackers’ and yet many of them have use in the classroom. So encourage your friends and family to save those crackers contents for you and here’s how I put some of the most common contents to good use…
The Screwdriver and pencils
Yes these are both keepers, absolutely perfect for construction lessons. The screwdriver is perfect for fixing and tightening the legs on a pair of compasses (put one in each classroom set of compasses)! Constant issue when completing constructions with pupils, they need to ensure not only that they have a sharp pencil that is kissing the point of the compass but also that the legs of the compass are tight.
The Tape Measure
Lots of uses for the tape measure such as estimating and measuring objects within or outside the classroom. One of my favourite uses is for pupil loci, as described in our post Teaching Loci.
The Plastic Jumping Frog– Data collection activities with the following question to investigate; “How far will the frog jump?”.
The Magic Calculator
Sometimes called the mystery calculation. I’ve collected over 16 of these over the years and can now use in algebra lessons! At first I just put them in my end of term puzzle box.Check out our post here for more on a class puzzle box. Your best ever investment; A puzzle box
Check out Maths Ed Idea’s blog here explaining the binary process behind some of these calculators.
The Bad Jokes
I am always looking for a good bad joke tell to my students or to include in my worksheet resources such as my collect a joke resource like this Christmas themed Collect a Joke worksheet which pupils need to be able to find the nth term of linear sequences and as a result collect the punchline to the joke; “Why isn’t every man in a red suit with a beard Father Christmas”? Check this resource out here Christmas Maths Sequences Collect a Joke Worksheet Activity.
The jokes within the Christmas crackers, although not often with a mathematical edge (these are my favourite kind of jokes), they are most often family friendly jokes that can be used in the classroom. Check out my previous post Joking around in Maths? Collect a Joke! in which I describe these resources and their uses in more detail.
The Playing Cards
So many uses from tricks such as these described in our post Magic Maths or the classic probability “higher of lower”, too many to list but grab those cards and keep them.
Thank you for reading this far! Here is a little Christmas Cracker for you, follow this link below for a free download of our most popular revision foldable usually £3…this link will be free just today, that is until midnight tonight Friday the 18th so download and save (checkout of free resources doesn’t require bank details)!
Christmas Flash Freebie: Describing_Transformations_Foldable
Merry Christmas from all @NumberLoving
Not Your Average Joe
A quick blog to let our readers know we have been updating some of our old free resources which you may (or not) have noticed were missing since we launched the new site. Check out our Free Resources page regular to keep up to date on all available freebies. Today Averages and Range quick starter worksheet has been updated and uploaded today.
Averages and Range quick starter, really is an average and quick starter on lists of data. We use this as a quick starter settler before moving onto finding the averages and range from frequency tables. Download this quick free resource using the link below or visit our store for both free and premium resources.
Download if for free here: MMMR_Starter_NL_F
Looking for ways for pupils to remember the different methods? Maybe you use the nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle” or you might like this video below “Its not hard (Averages song)” but be warned it is a bit outdated and like me you might not like the line or portrayal of the ‘perfect wife’. A quick youtube search “average song math” brings a lot of results.
If you are moving on to continuous data check out these resources available in our store
Continuous Data White Rose Year 9 Treasure Hunt
Averages from Lists; Tables Revision Foldables
Thank you for reading
Puzzle me this?? Halloween Picto-Puzzles Freebie
Following the success of our Valentine’s picto-puzzles we’ve put together a set of Hauntingly Halloween picture puzzles.

Great as a quick starter and application of the order of operations. Easy to display or print.
Pupils should assume all pictures take integer values and if two pictures are together (pumpkin wearing the witches hat for example) within a picture their values have been added.
FREE DOWNLOAD of Halloween Picto-puzzles here
We hope you enjoy using these puzzles. Check out our other Halloween blog posts;
Halloween Pop-Up Spiders and 3D Shapes
Skeletons, Ghouls and Rotational Symmetry
Thank you for reading
Sharon @numberloving
Pi Day
How will you celebrate Pi day in your classroom? Pi day lands on a Saturday this year 2020 but we plan to celebrate a day early on Friday March 13th. Here are some ideas including a free download from NumberLoving.
Beauty of Pi
Use this video below to demonstrate the beauty of Pi or download the app by Fraser McKay and Chris Smith from their PiWire site here to explore Pi and other numbers visually.
One Million Digits of Pi
Display as a list here or a rap video by AsapScience for just the first 100 digits in the video below.
Pi Day Dingbats
These are great for form time; say what you see! Download this PowerPoint presentation shared by Lloyd here.

Pi Day Puzzle Free Download
Two different puzzle styles, one is a straight forward pi-doku based on Sudoku but only using the digits 314 and the second is a reasoning puzzle similar to GCSE area/percentage question with no dimensions.
Check out our Pi Day bundle by clicking the link below, this includes resources suitable up to Higher GCSE Maths in the mystery which involves the equations of a circle.
Check out our previous blog post Pi-Day Resources for more ideas to celebrate the day!!
We would love to hear your Pi day activities! Get in touch via @numberloving or NumberLoving’s Facebook page!
You might also be interested in visiting our online store for more free and premium resources.
Thank you for reading
NumberLoving Sharon
Pie Chart Free Resources up to Higher GCSE Maths
A quick blog to share free set of pie chart resources, require no-prep printable downloads, that we produced when NumberLoving joined up with LittleStreams in collaboration.
The worksheets produced by Littlestreams help introduce how to calculate angles in order to construct Pie Charts. Once pupils are able to construct, you can move them into completing the NumberLoving Treasure Hunt. This requires pupils to interpret pie charts; finding amounts from pie chart sectors and includes questions like those included in Higher EdExcel and AQA GCSE 9-1 Maths papers.
The two resources can be downloaded for free using the links below;
LittleStreams drawing pie charts worksheets Free Download
Check out our Teacher Hack blog post below which will mean no excuses when pupils say “I haven’t got a protractor”! Maths Teacher Hack- Part 1
Get in touch via @numberloving or NumberLoving’s Facebook page!
You might also be interested in visiting our online store for more free and premium resources.
Thank you for reading
NumberLoving Sharon
Maths Teacher Hack #1 Protractors
Just a quick post to share a Maths Teacher hack for protractors!
Lots of pupils don’t own protractors and so very often I found setting homework that included angles particularly GCSE Maths exam papers that most often include bearings/pie chart to be completed at home difficult. So our hack is to print or photocopy protractors on to tracing paper or if you have it hidden in the depth of the stock cupboard, print onto OHP (Overhead projector transparencies)!

Download this page of A4 protractors ready to print.
You will need A4 tracing paper and patience with your photocopier, even better ask your reprographics department to do it. Warning when photocopying onto tracing paper the photocopier might not like it too much and chew up some of the pages, it’s best to feed one page at a time. Even better if you have any OHP (Overhead projector) transparencies, print onto these.
Once printed you can then give each pupil a tracing paper protractor to use at home without breaking the budget.
We would love to hear your Math Hack ideas! Get in touch via @numberloving or NumberLoving’s Facebook page!
You might also be interested in visiting our online store for more free and premium resources.
Thank you for reading, NumberLoving Sharon
Valentine Maths Picto-Puzzles Free Download
Our fourth freebie this week is a series of four maths picto-puzzles each of varying difficulty.

Here is an example page;

They include addition, subtraction puzzles and multiplication. Challenge your students to find the value of each Valentines symbol, watch out for valentine’s symbols within symbols on the more challenging picto-puzzle 4 and 5.
The full resource can be downloaded here by clicking the link below.
This free download includes 4 different Valentine picto-puzzles which can be displayed or printed as worksheets, with solutions. Ideal for a quick starter or plenary. You should also check out our premium Valentine bundle.



Don’t forget to check out this weeks Valentine posts for our freebies!
We would love to hear your Valentine Math ideas! Get in touch via @numberloving or NumberLoving’s Facebook page!
You might also be interested in visiting our Store for both free and premium resources.
Thank you for reading
NumberLoving Sharon
What’s the Substitute for Love? Free Valentines Maths Activity
More NumberLove to share and we ask if there is a substitute for love? Well the only substitution we’re covering here is algebraic substitution!
This free download requires pupils to answer questions evaluating expressions and then they shade the number grid to create the LOVEly picture!
Click on the picture above to get the free download from our store. If you like this you will LOVE our Valentine Math bundle, available via our store. It includes these two Math Art resources.


Click the picture below to visit this bundle.

We would love to hear your Valentine Math ideas! Get in touch via @numberloving or NumberLoving’s Facebook page!
You might also be interested in visiting our Store for both free and premium resources.
Thank you for reading
NumberLoving Sharon
Is there Space in your Heart? Free Area and Perimeter Problem Love
Another quick NumberLoving freebie Maths activity for the week of love, leading up to Valentine’s Day. Definitely suitable for GCSE 9-1 Maths and has plenty of challenge (Pythagoras, multi-step, area of parts of circles, area of sectors and segments).

There are five different hearts and pupils are asked to find the area and perimeter of the heart. The hearts are made up of triangles and two semi-circles or the more challenging heart (heart 5) requires pupils to calculate the area of two identical major circle segments.

Take a closer look at worksheet five for the extra challenge, suitable starter or plenary for Higher GCSE students.
Download the full free resource via the link below; this includes five different hearts of varying challenge that can be printed as worksheets (or displayed) and includes the solutions!
Look out for more freebies this week as we share the Number Love!
We would love to hear your Valentine Math ideas! Get in touch via @numberloving or NumberLoving’s Facebook page!
You might also be interested in visiting our Store for both free and premium resources.
Thank you for reading
NumberLoving Sharon
Logic in Love? Free Valentine Math Puzzle
A quick free logic puzzle for our favourite time of year Valentines Day, we are NumberLoving after all!

Download the full resource below: this includes the option of clue cards for traditional mystery or a worksheet option with built in two way table and the solution.
Look out for more freebies this week as we share the Number Love!
We would love to hear your ideas! Get in touch via @numberloving or NumberLoving’s Facebook page!
You might also be interested in visiting our Store for both free and premium resources.
Thank you for reading
NumberLoving Sharon