I recently organised an event in my school: ‘Mastering Maths Day’. The aim was to encourage further embedding of ‘mastery‘ activities in everyday maths lessons and also to boost enjoyment of the subject.
Mastery, in a nutshell, is developing a thorough and deep understanding of concepts – often this is achieved through well scaffolded activities and problem solving.
What was the structure of the day?
The week before the event, I explained the day at the staff meeting. I also gave out a home learning activity in which all of the pupils had to design their own maths game.
During the day itself, exciting puzzles and problems were completed in classes – please see the resource folder below (credit goes to NRICH from which I took/adapted some of the challenges). In the afternoon, I ran a ‘Maths Bee’. This was a competition, similar to a spelling bee, but with mental maths questions.
Where can I find all of the resources?
Please click this link for a Google Drive folder with everything you need. You must MAKE A COPY or DOWNLOAD the folder to make your own edits.
I also made some useful posters. This one can be displayed in your classroom as it is a handy reminder of different ways of mastering something.
The one below is a useful prompt for teachers. It features question starters which encourage higher order thinking and mastery.
Let me know how you get on. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.
That’s wonderful – thank you so much for sharing! 🙂
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Its a very good idea. Thanks for sharing it
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Thank you for sharing, I can see my students getting their teeth into some of these!
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Thank you for sharing…love the posters!
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Reblogged this on Metamathematics.
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its great post and help me alot. please keep continue posting articles on your great site.
https://games.lol/
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Really helped me since I am hosting one in the mere future so thanks for that.
https://games.lol/commando-alpha-sniper-shooting-fps-game/
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I have really been struggling with mastery and this is really helpful.
Thank you
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Great stuff here. With the Maths Bee, was it KS2 only or did you adapt questions for KS1 entry?
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