Adult Numeracy, Functional Maths, and GCSE Resources

A quick but very useful match-up activity that makes a good starter activity for financial literacy or employment skills courses - and it's bound to prompt discussion.

Editor's note

Written for an Australian audience but I have added a UK version on page 2.  Learners can draw lines to match the items or, for a reusable resource, the page could be laminated and/or cut into 12 cards. 

A colourful card matching task in which students interpret practical scenarios involving proportional relationships in terms of ratios and the total numbers of equal parts involved in them.

In pairs, they move the cards/ paper slips around and discuss how to match four ratios (white) with the four statements about parts (blue) and the four practical situations and actual amounts which correspond with them (yellow).

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.

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.

A 12-question test, designed for an Adult Numeracy class consisting largely of ESOL speakers.
Covers the terms “import” and “export”, since these often crop up in exams. Also mean, mode, median and range, and the meanings of “discount”, “under”, “approximately”, “difference” and “enlarged”. A little fraction revision, too: students have to identify 1/3 as “one-third”.

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.

Challenging cards relating time to fractions and providing practice in expressing one number as a fraction of another. E.g. 12 minutes is 1/5 hour.
To be laminated, cut up and and sorted under “true” or “false”. Can be differentiated for Level 1 and Level 2.
Forms part of a set of 5 resources linked to an excellent L1-2 lesson plan (that focuses on expressing one number as a fraction of another).

A clever and unusual set of 3-way matching cards to help underpin the following skills: converting measures , expressing one number as a fraction of another, find parts of quantities, and simplifying fractions. Can be differentiated for E3-L2.
Forms part of a set of 5 resources linked to an excellent L1-2 lesson plan (that also focuses on expressing one number as a fraction of another). Can also be used independently.