x = 3

y = 4

## A Mathematics Lesson Starter Of The Day

Share

Topics: Starter | Algebra

• S Curtis, Brune Park CC
•
• One of my more industrious students thought it clever to sequence it as follows:
y-1 = x
2y-5 = x
3y-9 = x etc...
• Heeley's Y7 brainboxes, Rawthorpe High, Huddersfield
•
• We thought this was bare cushtie (this means very good)! we recognised that there are an infinite number of possibilities.
Watch out for Mr Heeley on Teacher's TV on May 5th at 10pm. (Sky channel 880, Virgin 240).
God bless you all at Transum
Love Y7 xx
• N. Cox, Woodbridge, Suffolk
•
• Excellent open-ended starter which led to work with powers, brackets roots and many different types of equations.
• Jules, Longton High School
•
• 5. More like this please!
• 7ab/M4 The Best Maths Class In KA's, King Alfred's College OXON
•
• Some students in the class came up with these examples:
yxyxxyxxxxy=524288
yxyyx=2048
Then we thought about squaring the values.
• Luke, Savio Salesian College
•
• My class were very good at this starter,i think you should make a similar one.
• Transum,
•
• This starter provides an open ended opportunity for pupils to demonstrate what they can remember about algebra. It is a suitable activity for most ability levels and a quick walk around the classroom to see what pupils are writing provides a quick assessment of their understanding and imagination.
• Mr Anderson, Garth Hill College
•
• This is a good warm up for any class.

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.

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 3.1 out of 5 based on 337 votes.

Previous Day | This starter is for 20 April | Next Day

There are of course no end of correct answers and here are some examples.

There is at least one mistake. Can you find the errors when x=3 and y=4?

 $$x + y = 7$$ $$x - y = -1$$ $$y - x = 4$$ $$2x + 3y = 18$$ $$5x - 2y = 7$$ $$4y - x = 13$$ $$xy - 10 = 2$$ $$180 - 2x + y = 178$$ $$20x - 3xy = 24$$ $$x^2 + y = 13$$ $$10x - y^2 = 14$$ $$y^2 - x^2 = 7$$ $$x^2y + 13 = 62$$ $$x^2y^2 - 2x = 138$$ $$x^2y^2 = 576$$ $$x! + y = 26$$ $$5(x + y) = 35$$ $$3y \div x = 4$$ $$\frac{xy}{2}= 25$$ $$\frac{84}{xy}= 27$$ $$\frac{15y}{5x}= y$$

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.

Your access to the majority of the Transum resources continues to be free but you can help support the continued growth of the website by doing your Amazon shopping using the links on this page. Below is an Amazon search box and some items chosen and recommended by Transum Mathematics to get you started.

## Have you read Craig's book yet?

Craig Barton must surely be the voice of Mathematics teachers in the UK. His wonderful podcasts interviewing the industry experts have culminated in this wonderful book. As Craig says: "I genuinely believe I have never taught mathematics better, and my students have never learned more. I just wish I had known all of this twelve years ago..." more...

"How I wish I’d taught maths' is an extraordinary and important book. Part guide to research, part memoir, part survival handbook, it’s a wonderfully accessible guide to the latest research on teaching mathematics, presented in a disarmingly honest and readable way. I know of no other book that presents as much usable research evidence on the dos and don’ts of mathematics teaching in such a clear and practical way. No matter how long you have been doing it, if you teach mathematics—from primary school to university—this book is for you." Dylan Wiliam, Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment, UCL.

## Casio Classwiz Calculator

There is currently a lot of talk about this new calculator being the best in its price range for use in the Maths classroom. The new ClassWiz features a high-resolution display making it easier to view numerical formulas and symbols but it isn't a graphical calculator as such (it has the capacity to draw graphs on your smart phone or tablet, via a scannable QR code and an app).

As well as basic spreadsheet mode and an equation solving feature you also get the ability to solve quadratic, cubic or quartic polynomial inequalities and the answer is given just as it should be written down, using the correct inequality symbols!

This calculator has a high-performance processor and twice the memory of previous models ensuring speedy operation and superior computational power.more...

 Teacher, do your students have access to computers?Do they have iPads or Laptops in Lessons? Whether your students each have a TabletPC, a Surface or a Mac, this activity lends itself to eLearning (Engaged Learning).

Transum.org/go/?Start=April20

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

Transum.org/go/?to=Connect