Mental Mondays #18

This is a straightforward mental and oral maths idea to encourage the children to use and apply their calculation skills. We've given it a small Mathsticks twist by utilising a unique visual resource, but more about that later.

Here's what happens.

A two digit random number is generated either by rolling two dice or selecting digit cards. This is the target number, and it is displayed on the board.

Next the children are shown a grid of 16 other numbers. They must now work with a partner, using any operation they like, to make the target number in as many different ways as possible.

After a specific time (say, three minutes) you ask them to stop nad place their mini-whiteboard down.

Now, the children share their calculations and strategies with the rest of the class.

If you wish, you could develop the activity further by adding a scoring system, such as:

1 point for each time they have correctly made the target number

2 points if they have been able to use all four operations

4 points for using fractions, powers or roots

Here's the mathstick twist...

... a visually appealing grid of numbers using a selection of 'real life' numbers. This is a high quality jpg image download, large enough to display on an IWB.

Here's a closer look at part of the grid.

It is a series of 'polaroid' type photographs of real numbers in a  mixture of fonts, colours and styles.

[It's a .jpg download so best to save it by right-clicking and choosing "Save image as..."]

As always, we would look forward to hearing what you think of this in the comments, and would naturally appreciate your likes, tweets and Pluses if you enjoy it!