Check out this link I found on Pinterest:
Printable scrabble tiles
You could practice basic numeracy skills or even pose averages questions like find me a five letter word with a range of 3 and a median of 2 (QUOTH, 41132 is one possible solution).
BH sent me a brilliant link to this addictive website:
Visualising Primes
It could be used to discuss factors, multiples and primes. Or even just let it run in the background on a projector.
This is a great BBC documentary hosted by Terry Jones (Monty Python) about the history of the western number system:
The Story of One
I love the variety of paper available to download for free from this website: PrintablePaper
At a family party, Nanna is sitting quietly with a piece of paper and pencil. She is making a note of who is there. Later that week Nanna sets a challenge to her friends over coffee:
“I was at a party last week. There were 17 people there. There were:
8 cousins
10 sisters
1 brother
4 mothers
5 fathers
1 grandmother
2 grandfathers
1 great grandfather
3 aunts
3 uncles
8 great grandchildren
11 grandchildren
3 mothers have 2 sisters
3 sisters have 1 brother
4 sisters have 1 sister
Who was at the party?”
Draw a family tree to represent the answer.
Hint: There are 4 generations
Solution
Generation 1: Great Grandad
Generation 2: Granddad & Nanna
Generation 3: Three sisters and their husbands
Generation 4: Two of the sisters have families with two daughters, one sister has a family with three daughters and one son.
This is my favourite activity for introducing different measures of average. You can do this in a corridor or outside, no special equipment required.
Set Up
Line up the class in height order
Range
Ask the shortest and tallest students to stand back to back. The difference in height is the range.
Median
Tell the first and last student to make a half turn. Ask the second and second to last student to make a half turn. Repeat until only one or two students are facing forward.
One pupil = median height.
Two pupils = halfway between their heights is the median.
Mean
Imagine everyone is the same height. Tell the students to try to be the same height by bending knees or standing on tiptoes. Explain the mean is about sharing out equally.
Mode
Ask students to put themselves into groups of the same height. The biggest group is the mode.
This activity links a numerical calculation with a physical activity, which makes it more memorable.
