Countdown

A Maths Starter of The Day

132

Make a calculation using the numbers below to get as close as possible to the target above. You can use any mathematical operation but each number only once.

2
6
2
12
19

Starter of The Day Menu | Transum Software | Privacy Policy


Topics: Starter | Arithmetic | Fun

  • Chris Southward, LIMEHOUSE SCHOOL
  • Thursday, July 01, 2010
  • "Kris Faulder of Limehouse School came up with 19*8 + 5*17."
  • Amal, Islamia Girls Secondary School, London
  • Sunday, July 03, 2011
  • "This was really easy
    18(9 + 9)(18 - 9) = 2916."
  • Harrison, Cloudside
  • Thursday, July 12, 2012
  • "I got exactly the target with 2x6x8x10x12."

How did you use this starter? Can you suggest how teachers could present or develop this resource? Do you have any comments? It is always useful to receive feedback and helps make this free resource even more useful for Maths teachers anywhere in the world.
Click here to enter your comments.

If you don't have the time to provide feedback we'd really appreciate it if you could give this page a score! We are constantly improving and adding to these starters so it would be really helpful to know which ones are most useful. Simply click on a button below:

Excellent, I would like to see more like this
Good, achieved the results I required
Satisfactory
Didn't really capture the interest of the students
Not for me! I wouldn't use this type of activity.

This starter has scored a mean of 3.8 out of 5 based on 326 votes.

Previous Day | This starter is for 2 July | Next Day


Transum Shop Visit the Transum Online Shop Transum Shop
Transum Shop

Heinemann Maths Plus: Investigations and Problems Complete Easy Buy Pack (Heinemann Maths Plus) Heinemann Maths Plus: Talking Maths - Easy Buy Pack (Heinemann Maths Plus) Maths Plus: Interactive Mental Maths (Maths plus from Heinemann)

Answer

One possible solution is

(12 - 2) x (19 - 6) + 2 = 132

Are there any others?

What strategies did you use?

Did you use your head, paper or a calculator?

Or did you use all three?

Could a computer help solve this problem?

Would you improve if you practised solving problems like this?

How could a group of students efficiently work together on a problem like his?

Note to teacher: Doing this activity once with a class helps students develop strategies. It is only when they do this activity a second time that they will have the opportunity to practise those strategies. That is when the learning is consolidated. Click the button above to regenerate another version of this starter from random numbers.

The blue cards with numbers on can be dragged around the screen when considering different possibilities.
Laptops In Lessons

Teacher, do your students have access to computers?
Do they have Laptops in Lessons or iPads?

Whether your students each have a TabletPC, a Surface or a Mac, this activity lends itself to eLearning (Engaged Learning).

Laptops In Lessons

Here is the URL for a concise version of this page without comments or answers.

Transum.org/go/?Start=July2

Here is the URL which will take them to a student version of this activity.

Transum.org/go/?to=Expression