Adult Numeracy, Functional Maths, and GCSE Resources

This is an Excel file with a basic odd/even activity. I took inspiration from Jean Thomas’ “Reveal the hidden shapes!” activity from 2005.

With this activity, the tutor can design a picture (or one learner can design a picture for another learner) and it produces a printable sheet. The learner then shades all the odd numbers on the sheet in one colour, and all the even numbers in a different colour – revealing a picture or a message.

There are no macros, so cross-compatibility with Excel shouldn’t be a problem.

A Bonfire Night themed resource covering some aspects of literacy and numeracy.
The resource contains a basic reading comprehension about the History of Bonfire Night. This is followed by a numeracy activity where students have to buy fireworks for a display with a budget of £300. The final activity is a writing task and learners have to create a poster advertising the event.

I created this for an ILS (independent life skills) class but it could be used with Entry Functional Skills learners too.

A short cloze exercise on the Olympic Opening Ceremony based on numbers (E2-L1), plus a writing activity at 2 levels (E2-3 and L1-L2).

Editor’s note
The cloze is also a clever way of embedding some maths (large numbers).

Little starter activity for E2 learners to use odds and evens in a common real life scenario. Could be cut and stick or learners just write in numbers, for a quicker activity.

A collection of worksheets asking students to cut out and put the items in order using a given criterion. More able students can measure the items.

20 literacy and numeracy questions to warm up the new term! All based on the words HAPPY NEW YEAR (can easily be adapted for other festivals such a Diwali, New Year’s Eve or Ramadan). Covers vowels, consonants, number, ratios, simple substitution, range, mode and more!
Ideal for mixed ability groups (E1-L2). Also provides very good practice in reading instructions carefully.
For higher level groups it could be completed in teams as a speed test.

Simulations of email and online banking registration forms. Can be used in succession, as for the banking registration form you need an email address. When you press the “create account” button it will open the printing menu. Good luck!

Functional Skills maths across several levels.
A practical exercise involving estimation (of weight), weighing items and calculating range and mean.

Editor’s note
With detailed Functional Maths mapping

Print and cut in to 3 sets of cards. Can be used in a number of ways – match the underlined digit with the corresponding card for it’s place value OR match the words with numbers OR use for ordering numbers. Can be differentiated with size of numbers.

This is great as a warm-up activity or a bit of end-of-term fun. It is suitable for a mixed ability group of numeracy learners, or indeed literacy or ESOL learners. This quiz tests learners’ knowledge of how old someone has to be in order to do certain things legally, e.g. be a blood donor. It can be used in small group or pair work (which worked well for me) as well as individually.