Adult Numeracy, Functional Maths, and GCSE Resources

An activity to explore money management and negative numbers. Be prepared to signpost students if need be.

The activity starts with discussing who is most likely to get into debt and then by recognising that anyone can if they don’t have good money skills.

A game to help learners get to grips with the likelihood of selecting a particular thing at random. Students practise expressing probabilities as fractions, decimals and percentages. This activity avoids the taboos on dice and cards that some learners have. It also revises concepts such as multiples and “greater” and “less than”.

1 page cards to be cut out – give one set to each student (or pair of students), 1 page for student to complete, plus an answer sheet.

A set of cards where learners have to find fractions of money. I use this as a paired game where the learners share the cards between them, then both turn over one cardeach. They work out how much their card is worth then the “winner” or person whose card is worth more keeps both cards. Play continues until 1 player has all the cards.

This worked well as a bit of revision on measuring for a mixed class E2-L2. Also makes a good warm-up activity.
I’ve used different colours for easier and harder answers, so you can differentiate when you give the cards out (blue ones are supposed to be a bit easier, red ones a bit harder, and purple in between).

An outstanding set of resources. Developed to prompt discussion on knife crime with parents and children in a family learning setting, they are equally suitable in an FE setting – prompting discussion between students and tutors. The materials can be used to focus on knife crime but are also useful as part of wider discussion about criminal behaviour.

The resources include

Fun, multi-purpose speaking / reading / listening / writing / maths warm-up activity that can be used at any level and for any subject – particularly effective at Entry Level. Learners shake two dice to locate a word on a number matrix (good for maths:co-ordinates too!).
Five sample grids are provided – covering descriptions, homophones (2 grids), spellings and clothes – plus a blank grid so you can make your own. Includes full instructions and can also be used for numeracy.

A fabulous way to practise decimal, fraction and percentage equivalents. Set of 32 cards (Excel) and accompanying rules (PDF). For two or more players.

A wonderful dice game that will also improve money skills (addition and subtraction) and awareness of negative numbers.
Plus extension L2 statistics questions. Ideal for work skills students and fully mapped to L1 Functional Maths criteria.

FDP Happy Families card game is a great way to reinforce and assess learners’ knowledge of fraction-decimal-percentage equivalents. 
With detailed instructions and ideas for alternative games.

Editor's note. Now fully updated to reflect the new 2018 Functional Skills content that comes into effect September 2019.

A fun way of preparing a group for the L1 multiple choice test! 15 questions cover ratios, measures, percentages, fractions, place value, mean average, volume, time and money.