Aunt Sophie's Post Office

Starter of The Day Transum Mathematics Topics

The Best Maths Class Ever 7cd/m2, King Alfreds, Wantage Oxfordshire
At first the starter was challenging but then it started to make sense and that was when everyone started to get the hang of it. All together we got all the answers between us. The people who got the first answer were Danny, Ryan, David, Murran, Molly, Bryony, Alicia and sir. And some others got the rest of the answers.
N Cox, Ipswich
A good starter that can be developed easily into a differentiated lesson. For example, use the minumum number of stamps, pairs of stamp values that work for all postage values (1p stamp not allowed!). What sort of pairs work for the fewest values of postage.
Set 1 Year 4(Mathematical Whizz Kids! ), Banks Lane Junior School
We found three ways to solve this problem by working systematically using multiples of 3 and 8.
(2x8p)+(19x3p)
(5x8p)+(11x3p)
(8x8p)+(3x3p).
Transum,
This is an old idea but still very worthwhile even though the cost of the stamps probably isn't very realistic at today's prices. It lends itself to be extended in a number of ways in addition to those suggested by N Cox above (thanks). Please share any ways of developing this activity that might be useful to other teachers.

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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Previous Day | This starter is for 8 July | Next Day

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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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	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).

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

Transum.org/go/?Start=July8

Here is the URL which will take them to an interactive stamp sticking activity.

Transum.org/go/?to=Sticking

Aunt Sophie's Post Office

A Maths Starter of The Day

Don't miss the interactive Stamp Sticking activity.

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