James Russo

To make exploring counting patterns more exciting, consider downloading this worksheet. Students have to count backwards, filling in all the blanks, until they reach zero to make the rocket launch. A variety of different backwards counting patterns are explored (e.g., 2's, 3's, 5's, 10's and more). The lesson could be introduced through watching a short clip of a NASA countdown, and then providing students with the worksheet. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRGeLQkWuYk

To make exploring counting patterns more exciting, consider downloading these worksheets. In the first worksheet, students have to use their knowledge of how players score in basketball to decide how Bugs Bunny scored his points. This worksheet is in a multiple choice format. In the second worksheet, bugs bunny is playing cricket, rather than basketball. Students have to work out how many 4's and 6's bugs bunny scored, as well as tackle some additional counting patterns. The lesson could be i

This resource outlines a fun and simple game for helping to build fluency in mental arithmetic. It contains three adaptations, making it suitable for all primary school age children. The theme is wizardry. Help students select the appropriate "spell book", grab a 100's chart, some dice and counters, and students can get started right away! Mental Maths Games: Magic Number by James Russo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This material is design to help you explore complements to 100 (e.g., 58+42=100) across two lessons with your students. The learning objective is: To look for patterns to help us solve math problems in efficient ways. Today we looked to make complements to 100 (Super Rainbow Facts). The first lesson involves students tackling a Challenging Task. The second lesson is some consolidating worksheets (frozen/ ninja turtle themed). Contained in the material is a brief overview of how to teach with Ch

Are you a primary school teacher who has found the Daily CAFE framework useful in your classroom? SURF Maths provides a similar framework for teaching mathematics, specifically mental computation. I have provided a game-based activity which supports the introduction of a key SURF maths concept - More than 1 way (i.e., that there is more than 1 way of solving a problem). To find information on how to implement the SURF maths framework, as well as further free activities and lesson plans, visit