The following collection of resources have been assembled by the TES Maths Panel. They can be downloaded for free by registering on the TES website.
Fractions, decimals and percentages are found everywhere throughout mathematics and in your daily life. Imagine the chaos at a birthday party without an understanding of fractions when it came to cutting the cake.
Understanding decimals is at the heart of currency and exchange rates. How could we ever know if we are getting a good deal from a sale without an understanding of percentages? Needless to say we all need to get to grips with these concepts just to get by from day to day and most importantly, to prevent us from being ripped off! The resources outlined below enable you to bring some life to a vital topic for your students.
Top 10 resources
KS3/4 Collect a joke – four operations on fractions
Age Range: 11-16 Format: MS Word
Description: This sheet can bring some life to your lessons and get students engaged and eager to answer lots of questions in a race to work out the joke!
Estimating percentages game
Age Range: 11-16 Format: Web
Description: This resource is a cracker to get students thinking about the link between fractions and percentages. It even comes with some suggested rules to help get you started. Did I hear someone say percentage golf…?
Maths Vegas! Fractions
Age Range: 11-16 Format: PPT
Description: Easily adaptable for other topics and rules. Students work in groups and place a wager on getting a correct answer. The group who has the most ‘chips’ at the end is the winner.
FDP Simpsons Top Trumps
Age Range: 11-16 Format: PDF
Description: A great way to get students engaged in an activity is to put the ever popular Top Trumps spin on it. Students take it in turns to compare the test scores of some characters from The Simpsons but best of all is they’ll have to convert between FDP to see who wins!
Percentage of amount game
Age Range: 11-16 Format: PPT
Description: A brilliant idea to get students actively engaged and also improve their fitness levels. You’re going to need room for this. Project two questions onto the IWB or a wall in an assembly area if possible. Students in the middle must work out the answer and run to the wall with the bigger answer. If you get it wrong or are last then you are eliminated till the next round. Easily adaptable for many topics too!
Fractions, decimals and percentages – Cookie Monster
Age Range: 11-16 Format: PPT
Description: Students are shown a collection of four fractions, decimals, and percentages and identify which one doesn’t belong…all before Cookie Monster finishes his song. A good twist on this is to use the four walls of your room to represent an answer. Who will be the last student standing?
Adding decimals boxes game
Age Range: 11-16 Format: Word
Description: Adding decimals with a twist. Students play the classic game of ‘dots’ but the winner is not the person with the most boxes in the end. It is the person with the highest score from the boxes when added. Could be easily modified to do with many other topics, too!
Percentage increase and decrease treasure hunt
Age Range: 11-16 Format: Word
Description: There’s very few classes that don’t enjoy a good treasure hunt to consolidate their understanding of percentage increase/decrease. Great for getting students active on a cold Monday morning or even better on a warm Friday afternoon.
Tarsia – Fractions (four operations)
Age Range: 11-16 Format: ftsw
Description: Tarsias are a great activity in place of a set of questions. Here is a set of tarsias for lots of practice with the four operations and fractions.
Fractions countdown style!
Age Range: 11-16 Format: swf
Description: Get students practising working with fractions with a countdown spin on it. Great if you have one laptop between four on a table for students to compete against each other. Otherwise just put it on the IWB and go from there.
Brian Arnold, Maths Secondary Panel