Think Back

A Maths Starter Of The Day

James thinks of a number.

He multiplies this number by 6 then subtracts 8.

His answer is 22. What was James's original number?

Pencil

James's friend thinks of a number.

No calculators allowed

He then does the following operations:

Multiply by 2, subtract 2, multiply by 3 then add 38 (in that order). He finds that the number he ends up with is 10 times his original number.

What was James's friend's original number?

A Mathematics Lesson Starter Of The Day

Change NumbersEasier Questions

Starter of The Day Transum Mathematics Topics


Topics: Starter | Algebra | Functions

  • Teacher, Derbyshire
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  • Used this as a plenary question to a year 8 lesson on solving equations with x on both sides. Good challenge both in setting up the equation and then solving it.
  • Teacher, Surrey
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  • When checking answer, it only works on non-scientific calculators as they do not apply BIDMAS!!
  • Mr J, Balshaws
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  • We found this starter very interesting. Harry really loved it!!!

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 11 April | Next Day

 

Too difficult? There are some simpler questions like this on the THOAN Starter page.

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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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=April11

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 the Think Of A Number exercise.

Transum.org/go/?to=THOAN

Student Activity

Here is the URL which will you to our eQuation Generator which provides unlimited practice solving linear equations.

Transum.org/go/?to=eQuation

Student Activity

 

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