Adult Numeracy, Functional Maths, and GCSE Resources

A two-sided A3 'place mat' that has the following

This is a good starter activity to introduce measures, shape and space. It is also useful in dividing classes into small groups.

Using the templates I created I printed them on to card of different colours. I gave the shapes to the learners as they entered the room and told them to find the table with the same shape on it. When they reached the table they found the shape and some questions to answer.

After five minutes I asked for feedback from the learners.

Editor’s note
With Functional Maths mapping

My L1 learners were really struggling to remember what to do to convert units of measurement and were getting very confused at the initial stage, so I made this resource and laminated it so that it was available for them to look at if they couldn’t remember. Could also be made into a poster.

A resource I created to support my students getting used to what they needed to divide or multiply by to convert between units. Can easily be laminated for repeated use, or increased in size and turned in to a poster.

This activity encourages ESOL students:
- To communicate with each other while moving around the classroom,
- To revise Past Simple (questions and answers),
- To practise basic numeracy (subtraction).

With extensive teachers’ notes

Page 1: 8 maths questions relating to olympic torch
Page 2: Picture quiz: who is carrying the torch?
Page 3: Picture quiz: famous UK landmarks.
Page 4: UK cities – anagrams
Page 5: Answers

• Quizzes on pages 2 and 3 make good ice breakers and can also be used for SL&C discussion prompts.

A set of cards to cut out and ideally put in plastic balls or a jazzy box. Aimed at E2- E3 Functional Skills learners as an ice breaker, introductory lesson or for revision. Students need to work out the question and identify the maths skills they are using to answer it. Best printed onto card.
Questions are aimed to appeal to young adult students – e.g. clubbing, Facebook, food, mobiles, etc.
Questions cover the 4 operations, money, time, shapes and more.
26 cards. Includes Functional Maths mapping chart.

Find out and record everyone’s favorites from a diverse list of foods. Use as an icebreaker in any Entry Level literacy, numeracy, Functional Skills or ESOL lesson.

Also ties in well with lessons on diversity, healthy eating, collecting data, making / taking simple surveys, tallies, counting, asking questions, etc.

Mapped to Functional Maths and SfL adult numeracy, Functional English (speaking, listening and communication) and SfL adult literacy.

A set of posters / cards / checklists designed to prompt discussion, check learning and keep a record of student progression. Designed for Entry Level Functional Maths and English learners in an FE setting but suitable for all levels and subjects.
This resource was inspired by discussion on the NCETM (National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics) site about “understanding versus doing” and I would like to thank the forum members for their ideas and feedback.

A set of two posters for the classroom – also useful as handouts.
Formulae (L2)
I asked a group of my learners to come up with a short and snappy set of rules for using formulae. One of the group wrote the rules in the form of a poster, from which I developed this poster.
Covers general rules for using formulae such as order of operations (BIDMAS). Plus a separate page specifically for using a formula to find the area of a circle.

A set of 2 posters for the classroom – also useful as handouts.
Metric measures (L1 upwards) – clarifies metric prefixes
Imperial measures (L1-2) – I’m not expecting students to know or learn these facts but this poster makes a useful discussion prompt (about the difficulties of working with Imperial measures and how much easier it is to use metric units) and also includes interesting facts about the history of Imperial units.