Think Back

A Maths Starter Of The Day

Aaliyah thinks of a number.

She multiplies this number by 9 then subtracts 7.

Her answer is 38. What was Aaliyah's original number?

Pencil

Aaliyah's friend thinks of a number.

No calculators allowed

She then does the following operations:

Multiply by 3, subtract 6, multiply by 2 then add 42 (in that order). She finds that the number she ends up with is 12 times her original number.

What was Aaliyah's friend's original number?

A Mathematics Lesson Starter Of The Day

Change NumbersEasier Questions

Starter of The Day Transum Mathematics Topics


Topics: Starter | Algebra | Functions

  • Teacher, Derbyshire
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  • Used this as a plenary question to a year 8 lesson on solving equations with x on both sides. Good challenge both in setting up the equation and then solving it.
  • Teacher, Surrey
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  • When checking answer, it only works on non-scientific calculators as they do not apply BIDMAS!!
  • Mr J, Balshaws
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  • We found this starter very interesting. Harry really loved it!!!

How did you use this starter? Can you suggest how teachers could present or develop this resource? Do you have any comments? It is always useful to receive feedback and helps make this free resource even more useful for Maths teachers anywhere in the world.
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Previous Day | This starter is for 11 April | Next Day

 

Too difficult? There are some simpler questions like this on the THOAN Starter page.

Answers

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Note to teacher: Doing this activity once with a class helps students develop strategies. It is only when they do this activity a second time that they will have the opportunity to practise those strategies. That is when the learning is consolidated. Click the button above to regenerate another version of this starter from random numbers.

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Laptops In Lessons

Teacher, do your students have access to computers?
Do they have iPads or Laptops in Lessons?

Whether your students each have a TabletPC, a Surface or a Mac, this activity lends itself to eLearning (Engaged Learning).

Laptops In Lessons

Here a concise URL for a version of this page without the comments.

Transum.org/go/?Start=April11

Here is the URL which will take them to the Think Of A Number exercise.

Transum.org/go/?to=THOAN

Student Activity

Here is the URL which will you to our eQuation Generator which provides unlimited practice solving linear equations.

Transum.org/go/?to=eQuation

Student Activity

 

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