Starter Cards - ALGEBRA

Introduction These cards are designed to be used as mental and oral starters at Key Stages 2 to 4 Ideally they should be laminated with the sample key questions on the back Please add key questions of your own and adapt the cards to reflect the ability of your students

A1

SAMPLE KEY QUESTIONS SUPPORTCOREEXTENSION On your white boards, write down One bigger than t 2 greater than t 4 less than t Double t t less than 5 On your whiteboards write down m bigger than t 4 less than double t 3 greater than t and then doubled t squared less than a

A2

SAMPLE KEY QUESTIONS SUPPORTCOREEXTENSION On your white boards, write down One bigger than 5m 2 greater than 5m 4 less than 5m Double 5m 5m less than 5 Let m = 0.2, 0.5, a quarter …… On your whiteboards write down m bigger than 5m 4 less than double 5m 3 greater than 5m and then doubled 5m squared less than a Let m = 1.2, 0.6, … On your whiteboards, write down If m = 2 what is the value of 5m ? How about m = 3, 1, a half ……

A3

SAMPLE KEY QUESTIONS SUPPORTCOREEXTENSION On your white boards, write down As many pairs of fractions which satisfy this equation On your whiteboards write down As many pairs of whole numbers which satisfy this equation – one number must be negative As above with decimals and fractions Express x in terms of y On your whiteboards, write down As many pairs of whole numbers as you can which add up to 6

A4

SAMPLE KEY QUESTIONS SUPPORTCOREEXTENSION On your white boards, write down As many pairs of fractions which satisfy this equation On your whiteboards write down As many pairs of whole numbers which satisfy this equation – one number must be negative As above with decimals and fractions Express x in terms of y On your whiteboards, write down As many pairs of whole numbers as you can which make sense in this equation

Using cards A5 to A8 Give out the 4 cards to 4 pupils Ask pupils to stand at the front of the class showing the cards Give ‘x ‘ a value e.g x = 1 Ask the pupils to put themselves in order lowest to highest value of the expression Repeat with other values, keep a record of card positions and ask for comments as x increases in value Suitable for Core and Extension classes

A5

A6

A7

A8

A9 a, b, c, d…

A9 SAMPLE KEY QUESTIONS SUPPORTCOREEXTENSION The difference is 4 each time. If c = 11 what are the other numbers? If d = 5 …… Each number is double the previous number. If c = 12 what is a ? …….. The difference is 3 each time. If a =1 what is the nth term? If a= 4, use the nth term to find the 10 th term ……. These letters stand for numbers in a sequence. If the numbers go up in twos and a = 2, what are the other numbers? How about if b = 6 d = 7 ….. The numbers now increase by 3 each time …..