For Starters

642 students are going on a school trip. Each bus will take up to 48 students. How many buses are needed?

This week I scored 22 but last week I scored 49.
What is the difference between 22 and 49?

36 boxes each hold 25 tins of paint. How many tins of paint are there all together?

If Mr Muscle weighs 91kg,
Mr Fit weighs 104kg and Mr Strong weighs 98kg; What is their combined weight?

Mr Fit Mr Strong Mr Muscle


Topics: Starter | Arithmetic

  • Year 10 (2), Wincmore School
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  • I use this starter across my year groups and abilities. For my lower ability students, I tend to spend more time on the explanation and discussion of answers. For my higher ability students, I shorten the length of time they have to answer these questions. This starter works, because it test the 4 operations we mainly use in mathematics and makes students use their knowledge and understanding of the maths. It's also a great link with literacy skills!
  • The Best Pupils In The World, King Alfred's College
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  • This starter was pretty easy in the end, at the start some of the class struggled.
  • Nat, Weston
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  • I found it quite difficult.
  • Transum,
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  • The way this activity is presented can vary depending on your objectives. Are calculators allowed? Would you encourage rough work in the back of the exercise books or neat, well-laid-out, formal solutions in the front of the exercise books? Could a more able group do this starter with their hands behind their backs, completely in their heads and memorising the four answers? Don't forget that if you refresh this page the numbers in the questions change so you could try more than one of the above methods with the same class!
  • Mr Pyle, Warden Park
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  • We loved it, especially the humour.

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.
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Answers

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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.



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Online Maths Shop

Laptops In Lessons

Teacher, do your students have access to computers such as tablets, iPads or Laptops?  This page was really designed for projection on a whiteboard but if you really want the students to have access to it here is a concise URL for a version of this page without the comments:

Transum.org/go/?Start=March23

However it would be better to assign one of the student interactive activities below.

Laptops In Lessons

Here is the URL which will take them to a related student activity.

Transum.org/go/?to=many

Student Activity

 



Curriculum Reference

See the National Curriculum page for links to related online activities and resources.

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