Contextual Resources

Six Functional Maths tasks based on a theme of cooking pancakes in a college canteen. Plenty of space is provided for showing working out and many questions have no single correct answer (as, in a true functional fashion, these will depend on the students’ ideas and research).

Covers number, ratio, tallies, fractions, money and measures. All three process skills are amply covered. Particularly suitable for Shrove Tuesday but can be used all year round.

An adapted version of Judith White’s pancake resource aimed at Level 1 (see below). I have created this resource to use with Entry 3 (and slightly higher E3/L1) learners.

Four tasks based on a traditional pancake recipe. Space is provided for showing working out and one task involves independent web research.

Covers number, simple proportion, money, time and measures. All three process skills are covered.

A recently designed resource that I wanted to share with my fellow skillsworkshop users. I wanted something to use with my learners as a spelling lesson. I have tried to involve various activities to help motivate and keep interest whilst learning spellings.

Resource includes a cloze exercise, comprehension questions, homophones and plurals, and a final crossword to check skills.

A vocabulary building activity, involving dictionary use. Played in teams and based on the TV programme ‘Call My Bluff’. Teams compete to identify the true definition of a word when given a choice of three definitions, with one being true and two being false.

A great way to get learners to work together. I usually play this with level 1 and level 2 learners, either at the end of a session as an on going activity or as part of a session.

An international themed resource for World Maths day on March 1st 2011 or any other day. I based it around the C&G E3 Numeracy exams but it is also ideal for, and fully mapped to, Functional Maths.
Will also prompt disucssion on many issues from the cost of air travel through to literacy rates in Peru and traffic in the Panama Canal!
Includes tips for covering Functional Maths process skills.

An international themed resource for World Maths day on March 1st 2011 or any other day of the year.
It is also ideal for, and fully mapped to, Functional Maths. Will prompt disucssion on many issues from the UK population through to literacy rates in Peru and the Coral Coast in Fiji!
Includes tips for covering Functional Maths process skills.

A set of comprehension questions, together with vocabulary exercises, anagrams and a writing prompt.
Useful for those working towards Level 2 Certificate in Adult Literacy and anyone with an interest in word origins and English linguistics.
All based on an article from the BBC News website www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-10776581
See below for links to other Level 2 exercises.

A fabulous set of Functional Skills maths tasks and a great way to engage mixed ability groups. Covers many aspects of E2-L1 Functional Maths including all three process skills (representing, analysing and interpreting).
Topics include extracting information, simple formulae in words (Buy one, get one free, etc), money, division and general problem solving. Includes fireworks and food information booklet, task sheets, Functional Skills mapping, mark/answer sheet, and teaching ideas.

A lovely set of activities for Entry 1. Ideal in the current economic climate. Covers reading and matching key words, alphabetical order, spelling and a paired speaking and listening task (telephone orders).

A multi-functional resource for Literacy or Numeracy. Sample TV listings by day, programme, start and end times, channel and genre. Use for alphabetic or numeric sorting, skimming and scanning exercises, literacy social sight vocabulary for days of the week, numeracy exercises for calculating time, etc. This resource contains some sample exercise questions to use which can be developed further according to need. I laminated the sheets and then cut up into days so lower level learners can move the elements around. Higher level learners can work from the whole page sheets as well.