A lesson for Year 6 pupils to familiarise themselves with the key features of calculators and encourage appropriate and effective use whilst also exploring and reasoning about key aspects of mathematics.
The activities can be used individually or as a whole lesson. A PowerPoint to support the activities is also available.
The lesson is focussed on describing growing patterns. The patterns are constructed and discussed at the start of the activity and then guidance is given on how to generalise and move to representing the pattern using ideas of algebra. It also provides opportunities to explore the order of operations and the use of brackets on a calculator. These activities are followed up in the Year 7 lesson ‘More Growing Patterns’.
