5 Maths Gems #18

Most of my readers in all probability already subscribe to Chris Smith's lovely maths newsletter. Full of instruction ideas, puzzles, jokes together with mathematical trivia, it's a joy to have every week. Chris has been producing the newsletter since 2007 when he was a wee NQT. Amongst other things, the newsletter is a fantastic machinery for sharing expert practice.

Chris instantly has over 900 newsletter subscribers. This calendar week he published his 303^rd issue. I've exclusively been subscribing for a twosome of months but Chris was variety plenty to part his entire dorsum catalogue alongside me, which I've actually enjoyed reading. The ideas inwards my weekly gems posts are usually sourced from Twitter, but today I characteristic my v favourite ideas from the kickoff 100 issues of Chris's newsletters. Huge cheers to Chris for allowing me to create this!

1. Factorising
Here's a lovely thought for introducing factorising.

2. Connecting numbers
This is a actually squeamish starter action to prepare ideas relating to number properties.

3. Learning yesteryear Rope
This is neat for exploring polygons.

4. Finding a Route
Another squeamish starter activity.

5. Revision notes

In Issue 27, Chris featured an thought from TES which is designed to encourage students to revise for tests.

“I gave each pupil an A4 sail of newspaper alongside their lift together with my signature on it together with told them they had a essay out coming upwards together with they were allowed to choose the blank page inwards alongside them. It was upwards to them what they did alongside the page. If they wrote on it, fine, if they didn't, fine. Immediately ane of the to a greater extent than troublesome pupils shouted out, “Great! I'm going to re-create downward all the examples from my book.” Objective ane achieved. They were going to revise.

At the destination of the test, I collected their sheets to await at them inwards to a greater extent than detail. It was really rewarding when pupils pretty much demanded that they got them back. Objective 2 achieved. My pupils instantly value all of their revision notes."

Puzzles

Each of Chris's newsletters features a puzzle - here's 2 that I peculiarly liked (answers are at the bottom of this post):

And finally, 2 bits of trivia:

That's it from Chris's newsletters for now, but I volition choose yous to a greater extent than or less to a greater extent than newsletter gems later I've read the adjacent 100 issues. Don't forget to follow Chris on Twitter together with email him if you'd similar to have his weekly newsletters.

What I've been upwards to
I've had a busy together with emotional week. My motherhood operate out is coming to an destination together with I'm keen to start planning lessons. I don't accept my timetable yet, then am eagerly awaiting tidings of what classes I'll last instruction inwards 3 weeks. On Tuesday I hosted #mathscpdchat which was all most mutual mathematical misconceptions - yous tin plough over the sack read a summary here. On Wed I had a labor interview inwards which I taught a lesson on indices to a Year 8 course of report - it was fun to last dorsum inwards the classroom together with I'm pleased to tell I got the job, then volition last moving schools inwards May to drib dead an Aspiring Lead Practitioner. I was too really proud to accept an article published inwards Academies Week most the novel maths GCSE together with the associated problems alongside recruitment. Feedback together with comments are really welcome.

Puzzle answers: 1. r = 29  2. Pi/2