In her new video series on Making Maths fun, Mathematics teacher Holly Millican shares three activities she does with her students in the last few lessons before the school holidays.
She says, in her experience, most teachers get to the end of term and are looking for productive ways to engage students in the lessons.
‘The activities that I try and use in this situation really focus on that group work aspect, really engaging the kids in … critical and creative thinking skills and really getting the kids to work together as a team,' she says.
The first activity she suggests is a Clark Creative Education resource called Mathematical Escape Rooms. ‘There's a range of them on the website for pretty much every topic. The most recent one that I did was with my Year 7 class on decimals and they absolutely loved it,' she shares.
The second activity is dodecahedron paper folding, requiring only A4 sheets of paper to complete it. ‘So it is a very simple activity, all you need is a piece of paper and a little bit of creativity and the kids absolutely love it. They get really into it and try to figure out who can make the best shape, the most stable shape, who can throw theirs the highest?'
The third activity is a card game called ‘I have, who has'. ‘It is a great little resource, they're quite cheap online and they do some across a range of topics so you've got fractions, geometry, measurement – all sorts of different things in there…' Millican says.
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Think about your own maths classroom. Are there any games or activities that you use to finish off a term? How do you keep students engaged right up to the school holidays? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
