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 in our store, chheck out this free Interpreting Pie Charts Treasure Hunt download. 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. Get in touch @numberloving and check out our free and premium resources in our NumberLoving Store.
Dancing and Maths may not seem like an obvious combination, perhaps because dancing is generally considered to be good fun. This idea came about as part of an open evening which was Disco themed but it has now become a regular activity in my lessons.
The idea centres around the fact that lots of maths questions have an answer between 1 and 99. To start you will need a class set of ‘dance mats’, I made mine using some non-slip fabric meant for swimming baths and some spray paint, alternatively you could use sugar paper and sticky-back plastic.
Each student is given a mat, you then flash questions up on the IWB, students left leg represents the tens and their right leg the units. They have to move so that their feet match the answer to the question e.g. if the answer were 52 they would have their left leg on ‘5’ and their right leg on ‘2’. The next question then appears and they jump to the next answer. Along with some music and a bit of momentum you get students dancing along to BIDMAS, volume, solving equations or any topic you can think of! See our bundle of dance mat maths in our tpt shop or tes store for some ready made activities that you can use with your Dance Math Mats.
My students really enjoy this of any ability and it really helps to engage the kinaesthetic learners, you may have a few students who initially don’t want to join in (until they see how much fun it is!) in which case I let them answer on mini-whiteboards instead.
If you try this out we would love to hear from you, tweet us @numberloving or email at numberloving@outlook.com and check out our free and premium resources in our TES NumberLoving Store.
The joy of laughter is not to be denied even in the learning environment. I like to think pupils are laughing with me when I crack my latest mathematical based jokes, even with comments like “Miss, that’s your worst one yet”, I know they enjoyed it really!
We have developed a few ideas of how jokes can be used in the classroom to motivate and engage learners, as well as creating a great atmosphere!
2) Hunt a joke This can be the easiest way to liven up a activity which at NumberLoving we call “bog standard worksheet” into a motivating and engaging activity.
Simply take the answers in order, to any worksheet and match them each with a word (if enough words, letters if not) on laminated cards that have been placed on the walls around the classroom. When pupils have completed their work and had it marked they can then move around the rooms collect the words or letters in the order of the answers to form the joke or secret message.
Check out this simplifying surds worksheet, which is differentiated to three levels of difficulty, hunt cards and solutions.
3) Treasure hunt
You may have already seen our treasure hunt resources. This is a slight adaptation, in which with each treasure hunt card a word from the joke or a letter to punch line is added to each card.
For a healthy supply of those all important mathematics jokes check out this forum discussion on the TES as well as this previous post on maths jokes.
My favourite “What did the zero say to the eight?”
Punchline; “Nice belt”
Get in touch @numberloving or numberloving@outlook.com and check out our free and premium resources in our NumberLoving Store.
In the run up to Easter it’s a good idea to have some fun activities up your sleeve, so here are some of NumberLoving’s favourite Easter resources.
All children (and some adults) love a good Easter egg hunt, check out the treasure hunt activities in Store to inject a bit of hunting fun into your lessons next week. I have adapted this one on BIDMAS to make it a bit more ‘Eastery’ so get it stuck up around the playground and let the kids loose! (template here if you want it!)
There is also this great Easter themed trail shared by Phrankie on the TES, although it is aimed at KS2 it would be fine for low ability Year 7’s and easily adaptable for others too!
Get your students doing some origami and making these fantastic bunny boxes, they can be folded to fit an egg in the middle and have to be inflated by mouth at the end! A great fun activity for KS3.
Another nice origami activity is this bunny, the instructions are really clear in the video which makes it great to use in class!
If you want something a bit less hands-on then try some of these Easter themed worksheets from Ten Ticks. Another nice worksheet on combinations is this one from primaryresources.co.uk, this is easily extendible for higher ability students too.
If you are brave then you might risk making some Easter nests with the students (cooking required!). Give students this recipe for 30 cakes and get them to work out the required quantities for 5, then get them measuring and weighing and prepare for some chaos!
Any other nice Easter activities would be much appreciated so please send them our way! Get in touch @numberloving and check out our free and premium resources in our NumberLoving Store.
As the weather starts to improve there’s nothing quite like breaking free from the confines of your classroom and letting your students loose outside! Everyday this week I will be blogging about an idea to get your students up and out of the classroom…
Trigonometry in real life
This lesson has always gone down really well with my students. You need to have studied using trig for calculating missing sides and angles in right-angled triangles. I would split this into two 50 minute sessions (or some equivalent of this!) this is the Powerpoint I have used in the past – you could update it with pictures from around your school!
Lesson 1:
Present students with a question like ‘how could we work out the height of the school?’ (slide 2) and get them to brainstorm ideas. If you need to then show them slide 3 and guide them through the process of using trig. Then ask them how they might measure the length of the base and the angle. The rest of the lesson can be spent making the clinometers, some really clear instructions on a printable worksheet are available here. And designing their data collection table. You will need some trundle wheels or long tape-measures (raid the PE department!)
Lesson 2:
Group students into threes and off they go! You would probably want to place yourself somewhere central so you can keep an eye on them and you are available for help! In my experience it is also worth giving each group a little ticket you have signed explaining that they are meant to be out of class.
Back in the classroom after half an hour or so you can reveal the heights and get students to calculate the difference between their answers and yours, then they can calculate the average which you can compare to pick a winner. In with this you can discuss the accuracy of their results and even other applications.
We hope you enjoy these ideas! Get in touch @numberloving and check out our free and premium resources in our NumberLoving Store.
This can be the easiest way to liven up a activity which at NumberLoving we call “bog standard worksheet” into a motivating and engaging activity.
