A number starter to start 2020: Dot to Dot

Not exciting but a little starter for year 11 – things they made errors on during the Mocks.

Solution (I hope!)

UPDATE:

Used this with my Numeracy class (they caught sight of the patterns i’ve been drawing and loved them so wanted to try out this DOT-TO-DOT) and now they are desperate to try another one:

They have spent this half term looking at rounding, Approximations, Estimations. So heres a rounding dot-to-dot i made. The first page is the solution. Estimation

Another Dot to Dot but this time the focus is Negative Numbers

I’ve been drawing patterns and Celtic knots to use in these Dot to Dots and some of the students have been asking me to show them how they are created.

Here are some questions I will use with year 9. I want them to be able to compare fractions in different ways.

Equivalent Fractions

I have never been a fan of pictograms and felt they were an inferior way of displaying data. Students took too long drawing images and it seemed to me that a bar chart was a much neater way to display data. It wasn’t until I marked the November Resit exam that it suddenly dawned on me the potential that Pictograms had. Students could solve questions using proportional reasoning and there were some neat ways to solve the answers. On the question I marked, students had to find out the total frequency, given the key was 8 pictures. Some students tried to work out each row individually but others found out how Many shapes there were and multiplied by 8. I saw such a range of successful and less successful methods to solve the problem. From that question i made the following resource

Some Histogram activities i’m bring this week…

Histograms

I like using a hexagon when looking at bearings (without or without isometric paper) plus its a topic that we teach alongside angle reasoning so students have just looked at angles in a polygon. I spend time looking at bearings that can be calculated using angles  found on parallel lines and I also look at angles that can be measured using a protractor. The purpose of this lesson is to get students correctly using the north line and clockwise to find the correct path. Heres the ppt: Bearings

There has been some interest in a recent resource that I shared under the label “Quick check for yr 11 to see how well they cope with negative numbers” I said I would share the ppt document and also I thought whilst I was at it, i’d share the follow up lesson.

Negatives

Looking at patterns to see what happens when you have to multiply or divide with negative numbers.

I am teaching the topic: Algebraic Fractions for the first time in years. I didn’t like how I taught it before so I spent some time rethinking how I teach it. I thought that if students understand adding and subtracting fractions then the can generalise it. So I will send some time going over adding and subtracting fractions first.

The move on to fractions involving letter notation.

I also want students to see that the final simplified algebraic expression can be substituted and still works.

I plan to then give the following questions: