The North Pole Test

It is very cold at the North Pole, so cold that your brain could stop working.

Show that your brain is working well right now by writing out the 101 times table.

How far can you get in five minutes?

Sign

North Pole
101 miles   

Try this activity again when you are feeling cold. Can you get as far in five minutes?

Freezing

A Chilling Mathematics Lesson Starter Of The Day


Topics: Starter | Tables | Xmas

You can find many more ChristMaths activities at:

Transum.org/ChristMaths/

ChristMaths

  • Primary 6 & Mrs Thom, Netherlee PS
  •  
  • In five minutes, our primary 6 class managed to get the first 16 stations correct. We felt that it was tricky but a lot of fun. Some were frustrated that if they got one answer wrong then every other answer was also wrong.

    We really enjoyed today's challenge!
  • Matthew, 3D, Craigslea State School
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  • I got up to the 29th station in 5 minutes.
    It was fun!
  • Katee Wheeler, ------
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  • This starter has some potential and is very helpful and interesting for developing Mathematical skills.
  • Debbie, Guernsey
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  • Very absorbing activity! One of my Y5s managed up to 49 x 44 in 5 minutes.

    [Transum: If you are reading this comment and wondering why it refers to the 44 times table while you have been presented with another times table it is because a different number appears every time this page is loaded.]
  • Transum,
  •  
  • Yes, the cold can really affect your brain in a negative way. Perhaps a chilly day where you live won’t make a big difference but for really cold environments there have been studies which have found that mental changes (reflecting a cooling brain) are the first sign of hypothermia. The tell-tale signs include becoming withdrawn, slower movements, poor coordination, hallucinations, slurred speech, poor memory and eventually loss of consciousness.

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.
Click here to enter your comments.

Previous Day | This starter is for 17 December | Next Day

 

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 with a number randomly chosen from a list of suitable numbers.

There are a printable worksheets for the more common timestables.

Worksheet


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=December17

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 game that will help them practise the 101 times table.

Transum.org/go/TD/?T=101

Here is the URL which will take them to the most popular multiplication tables app.

Transum.org/go/?to=tablesmaster

Student Activity

 



 

Extension

Are you a morning person?

Try the Time Of Day Test

Count down from 1000 in steps of 7 trying to get as far as possible in five minutes.

Do this task in the morning then repeat it in the evening. Which time of the day were you able to do best?

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