Adult Numeracy, Functional Maths, and GCSE Resources

An activity using mobile phones. Students could also do a warm-up by measuring and weighing real phones (switched off)!

The lesson was designed for an E3 young learner class. The last section, using percentage changes, might suit stronger learners (L1 extension).

Editor’s note
Fully mapped to the Functional Maths criteria. Covers rounding whole nos. and decimals, money, percentages, fractions and area.

Using a video from YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6eTr4ldDYg) about the miniature earth I have created this PowerPoint on percentages. It will work well with John Thompson’s easy percentage worker-outer and Margaret Adams’ Calculating percentages as quantities (links below under “See also”).

Place value game involving dice and calculators. Helps build confidence with place value.
Can be used with all ability levels and easy to adapt.
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The classic example of a tally is keeping track of how many cars of each colour go past in the street, but that is rather awkward to do in practice.

Use this presentation to save having to leave the comfort of the classroom! It is a PowerPoint slideshow of cars of various colours, to be projected onto the board. Tell learners to keep a tally of how many cars of each colour appear. Where a car has more than one colour, they should put it under the predominant colour.

E1 learners could focus on simply counting (for instance) all the red cars.

Learners round the same number to a several different degrees of precision. This reinforces that the important thing about rounding is what one is rounding to..

A set of 10 problems. Learners revise choosing the correct operation (addition, subtraction, multiplication or division) and carrying out the calculation correctly.
Ideal for Entry 3 Functional Maths.
Answer sheet provided

An updated version of Gordon Noblett’s 2011 resource (see below). This version includes the correct tax allowances and information for 2012-13. It also includes an answer sheet. The original description is repeated below.

Challenging and very functional worksheets where learner must complete the missing information and calculate the take-home pay etc. for various UK tax payers. There are also some interesting open questions that are ideal for Functional Maths interpreting skills.
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Powerpoint for practising numbers to 20, not necessarily all at once.

Used as a starter with all ESOL maths groups to check the spelling of numbers. I created it for E1 / E2 and it could be used for ESOL, Literacy or Numeracy classes.

A selection of smileys are shown on each slide. Clicking reveals the number (as a digit) and a further click reveals the number spelt out as a word. Good used with small individual whiteboards.

A power point and interactive cards to introduce the students to reversing calculations / formulas.

The animated PPT demonstrates the basics of how to rearrange formulae and use reverse calculations to self check answers.

The cards with symbols, can be used to physically rearrange the formula showing the moves of each symbol. These allow the tutor to spend some time talking the less able students through the process. Students can then use the card to complete a short worksheet.

This is a worksheet with several problems based on everyday situations where students perform a division and need to interpret the remainders to give an acceptable answer.

Editor’s note
This worksheet accompanies Joaquin’s “Division of whole numbers” PowerPoint (listed under See also)