A Mathematics Lesson Starter Of The Day

Tasty Take-Aways

In the back of your exercise books write down the answers to the calculations below. Do not use a calculator. When you have finished add all of your answers together


Topics: Starter | Arithmetic

  • Julie Reakes, The English College, Dubai
  •  
  • I love this kind of starter as it ensures complete accuracy.
  • Jules Higham, IMS
  •  
  • This is great for my students for beginnings of the lessons and to get their brains in gear!
  • Chris Smith, Bushenyi Primary Teachers' College, Uganda
  •  
  • This was rather "so what" for my teacher trainee students, but... we saw a good way to encourage both speed and accuracy, only one answer to mark, so designed a similar starter, eight questions, various operations, and the final sum was 12,345. It could have been the date or 22222 or... Tried it with a Primary 5 class this afternoon and it worked very well. Certainly I will recommend this for school practice next term. It is very flexible, any question giving a numerical answer. (Commas in large numbers are accepted here, currency has lots of zeros.).

    [Transum: Thanks for the ideas Chris. Your comment about the total being today's date inspired me to create the Extension which you will find lower down this page.]

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 20 July | Next Day

 

Answers

Sign in to your Transum subscription account to see the answers

   

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 link. As an Amazon Associate I earn a small amount from qualifying purchases which helps pay for the upkeep of this website.

Educational Technology on Amazon

 

Online Maths Shop

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=July20

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 complete set of exercises on basic subtraction.

Transum.org/go/?Num=119

Student Activity

 


Extension Take-Aways

In the back of your exercise books write down the answers to the calculations below. Do not use a calculator. When you have finished add all of your answers together. What do you notice about the answer?

Curriculum Reference

See the National Curriculum page for links to related online activities and resources.

Transum.org is a proud supporter of the kidSAFE Seal Program