Back in post 231, I discussed using a Fish & Chip shop to introduce BIDMAS. I’ve since taught this topic again and written a resource to go with it:
There are three different menus – if you hand them out correctly no two pupils should have the same menu. Pupils write their names on the front and fold the menu in half so that they can see the price list.
If you go through the activity in post 231, pupils can use their menus to work out totals without copying from each other. You can then get the pupils to gather into the three different shop groups and argue out the misconceptions.
I used this on my first lesson this year with a shared Year 7 class, in front of five PGCE students and it worked a treat!