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

A1SAMPLE KEY QUESTIONS

SUPPORT CORE EXTENSION

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

A2SAMPLE KEY QUESTIONS

SUPPORT CORE EXTENSION

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

A3SAMPLE KEY QUESTIONS

SUPPORT CORE EXTENSION

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

A4SAMPLE KEY QUESTIONS

SUPPORT CORE EXTENSION

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…

A9SAMPLE KEY QUESTIONS

SUPPORT CORE EXTENSION

•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 10th 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 …..