Warm-ups

Here are ideas on some fun ways you can begin each day's maths lesson. Remember, these don't necessarily have to be on the same topic as the lesson itself. The idea is just to get kids thinking mathematically and of course, warmed up. Google

Starter of the dayhas a new "starter" or warm-up every day. These are ideal for use with the interactvie whiteboards.

__Explore the date__ Check this site for inspiration.

__Arm link__ Stand at front of room. Say “I have 2 brothers”. Anyone else in the room that has 2 brothers joins you – linking arms. One of them states another attribute.

__Button Sort__ In pairs, ask the children to sort the buttons provided to them by one attribute. Now by 2 attributes (eg. shape and number of button holes). Now 3.

__Buzz__ Skip counting and must say “buzz” on designated multiples or on designated final numbers – “buzz” on any numbers that end in a 0 or 2 when counting by 4s.

__Calculator vs. Computator __ Choose 2 children. One student gets the calculator. The other has to work out the mental computation problems you ask in their head. First to score 3 points.

__Coin Combinations __ Have some coins totaling $1, 50c, 30 or 20c in your pocket. For example, tell the students you have 30c. What coins do I have? See if they can match your coins.

__Date Maths __ Using only the numbers in that day’s date (eg. 16/02/08) the students (in pairs or as a class) must make a number sentence for all the numbers 1 to 20.

__Follow my directions __ Ask a student to stand outside of the room. Now hide an object within the room. Student returns. Now, using clear directions such a right/left, quarter turn, forward/back, etc. lead him/her to object

__Four Corners __ In each corner of the room attach a clearly seen Club, Spade, Diamond and Heart. Tell students you are going to turn over one from a deck of cards. Chn. go to the corner of the suite they believe will be turned over.

__Guess the Attribute__ Ask a group of children to stand in one corner. Now choose some more to form another group. Continue until all chn. are grouped. Ask children – how did I group you? What attribute? Use color of clothing/shoe type/same letter first name

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Heads and Tails __ <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Use 1 coin. What can occur? 10 flips – record on board. What happened? Using 2 coins – what combinations could occur? 2 heads – put hands on head. 2 tails – put hands on tail. 1 head and 1 tail – put 1 hand on head, 1 on tail.

__Hear my shape__ <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Choose a student to look away from the board. On the board draw a regular shape slowly and so that the student can hear it being drawn, eg. A rectangle. What was the shape? How do you know

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">How much money in my pocket? __ <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">“I have some money in my pocket boys and girls. You have 8 yes-or-no questions that you can ask me to find out how much I have.” After 8 questions you can guess. Emphasize the importance of not guessing numbers haphazardly. Depending on the level, you may want to offer more than 8 questins.

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Human birthday graph __ <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Students need to find ways to stand and literally organize themselves into their birthday months at the front of the room. At grades 3 to 5 – do this without talking at all.

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Human number line __ <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Give a number (0 to 9) each to 10 students. Can you line yourselves up smallest to largest? Find a partner so your numbers add to 10. Odd and even. Straight numbers/curved numbers. 4 and 3 - make the largest number you can, etc

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Magic 8 __ <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Students make digital numbers using popsticks and following a calculator display. Start with 0, then 1, 2, etc. When they start running out of sticks – “I think there’s a number that all digital numbers can be made from – I wonder what it is?”

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Mindreader __ <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Give children (in groups or whole class) 4 or 5 clues to the number you’re thinking of. Children should wait until you have provided all the clues before guessing. “I am a 2 digit number; I am an odd number; the first digit is even; my digits add up to 7” What number?

__Ninny Ninny__ <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Place 3 blue, 3 red and 3 green counters, or similar, in a container. Students need to guess/predict what colour counter you will draw from the container. Once drawn colour stays out. For each of the nine draws chn. need to predict the color

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Pendulum Predictions __ <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">For this, you will need a ball of blutac and 18cm of strong. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Ask students to consider then record how many full swings the pendulum will make in 30 seconds. Chn. count the swings. Compare with prediction. Now halve the length of string. Predict again. Swing and count. Compare. Halve again.

__Pick it out__ <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Pull numbers (0 to 9) one at a time from a container. Students try to make the largest number possible. Play from tens and ones (Ps) up to millions (grs. 4,5,6)

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Probability Lines __ <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Children line up or place stickers on a pre-made probability line 0___1 to show what they think is the likelihood of an event happening.__

Talking Heads __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Using post-Its or similar, place an unseen number on students’ foreheads or backs. They can ask yes/no questions of others to work out their number __

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Tell me something about __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Choose a number. For example 11. Tell the children that you want all of them to think of something special about number 11. It can be what the number means to them, it can be how the number looks, it can be mathematical. __

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Ten Second Walk __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Students, in turn, take as close as possible to walk a designated distance in exactly 10 seconds. Before declaring the time, choose other chn. to guess __

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">The answer is...what could the question be? __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">The answer is 13. What could the question be? What is 3 times 4 plus 1? What is an unlucky date? What is a baker’s dozen? What is 20 – 7? __

The Million Dollar Mission<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">

Greedy Pig<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> __A game consists of 10 rounds by default (see options below). All players are 'standing' as each round begins. Players roll the die (take turns or have a specified 'roller', as desired). If a two, three, four, five, or six is rolled, all standing players add that number of points to their scores for the current round. A player can 'sit down' at any time. When a player sits, he or she safeguards all the points he or she has earned in the round, but is not able to earn more points until the next round. When a one is rolled, all 'standing' players lose the points they have accumulated in the current round. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. Click here to see an example of how the game works.__

One!<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> __I find it best played 2v2 to encourage co-operation and joint decision making. The players have one standard die and they roll to decide who goes first. Players then roll the dice up to five times and keep a running total BUT if they throw a number 1 they lose their current score and record zero. Players can hold their current score by passing on the die to their opponents. An advanced version can be played with two dice and the two dice are then multiplied. This is a great activity for quick addition and also introduces children to probability i.e. "When is it a good time to hold your score and pass the die on?" Players can have 5 turns each or continue for a certain duration.__

Who wants to be a mathematician?<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">

__The class is told of the game based on the ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’ TV programme. All the children sit at their tables and the teacher selects a child to play the game by having a ‘fastest brain first’ Maths question. The child who gives the correct answer quickest comes to the front of the class to play. When in the hot seat, the child has to answer three (or more) questions based on the learning objectives. These questions need to be answered as quickly as possible and only the first answer can be accepted. At the same time the rest of the class are told to think of the answer as well as, if the contestant gets it wrong you will be picking another player who has the right answer to sit in the hot seat. Whilst in the chair the contestant gets two ‘lifelines’ to help him/her. These are ‘ask the audience’ in which the majority of right answers from the rest of the class could influence the answer, or ‘phone a friend’ where the contestant is allowed to ask one of his/her class friends to help them.__

Roll of the dice<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">

__Depending on the level, this activity requires two to four (or more dice). Roll the dice and mentally calculate an answer using the digits rolled. Give the students a minute or two to try to work out what your calculation was. For example, if you roll a 3, a 2 and a 5, you could say “17”. The students would then have to work out that 3 x 5 + 2 = 17. This can be repeated a couple of times.__

0-20__

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Give the children the numbers 1,2,3,4 and the operations +,x,-, and 'divide by'. Tell them they must find as many of the numbers 0-20 as they can by using ALL the numbers 1-4 and ANY combination of operation in each 'answer', eg 1+2+3+4=10; 4x3-2+1=11; 2-1x4x3=12; 4+3x2-1=13 etc. They can then see that there are many ways of getting the same answer, as well as how to make higher and lower numbers using different combinations of the operations. You can challenge them to find the highest number possible.