Dice Reflections: A dice is reflected in two mirrors. What numbers can be seen?
Freemason's Cipher: Find symmetric words in this ancient cipher.
Match Fish: A classic matchstick puzzle designed to challenge your spacial awareness.
Mirror Maths: The bottom half of some symmetrical calculations are shown above. Can you work out the answers?
Reflective Cat: On squared paper copy the drawing of the face then reflect it in three different lines.
Rotational Symmetry: Draw a pattern with rotational symmetry of order 6 but no line symmetry.
Wrapping Paper: Find the order of rotational symmetry of the repeating pattern.
Comment recorded on the 24 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Ruth Seward, Hagley Park Sports College:
"Find the starters wonderful; students enjoy them and often want to use the idea generated by the starter in other parts of the lesson. Keep up the good work"
Comment recorded on the 16 March 'Starter of the Day' page by Mrs A Milton, Ysgol Ardudwy:
"I have used your starters for 3 years now and would not have a lesson without one! Fantastic way to engage the pupils at the start of a lesson."
Comment recorded on the 9 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Liz, Kuwait:
"I would like to thank you for the excellent resources which I used every day. My students would often turn up early to tackle the starter of the day as there were stamps for the first 5 finishers. We also had a lot of fun with the fun maths. All in all your resources provoked discussion and the students had a lot of fun."
Comment recorded on the 17 June 'Starter of the Day' page by Mr Hall, Light Hall School, Solihull:
Comment recorded on the 28 May 'Starter of the Day' page by L Smith, Colwyn Bay:
"An absolutely brilliant resource. Only recently been discovered but is used daily with all my classes. It is particularly useful when things can be saved for further use. Thank you!"
Comment recorded on the 1 August 'Starter of the Day' page by Peter Wright, St Joseph's College:
"Love using the Starter of the Day activities to get the students into Maths mode at the beginning of a lesson. Lots of interesting discussions and questions have arisen out of the activities.
Comment recorded on the 3 October 'Starter of the Day' page by S Mirza, Park High School, Colne:
"Very good starters, help pupils settle very well in maths classroom."
Comment recorded on the 7 December 'Starter of the Day' page by Cathryn Aldridge, Pells Primary:
"I use Starter of the Day as a registration and warm-up activity for my Year 6 class. The range of questioning provided is excellent as are some of the images.
Comment recorded on the 10 April 'Starter of the Day' page by Mike Sendrove, Salt Grammar School, UK.:
"A really useful set of resources - thanks. Is the collection available on CD? Are solutions available?"
Comment recorded on the 18 September 'Starter of the Day' page by Mrs. Peacock, Downe House School and Kennet School:
"My year 8's absolutely loved the "Separated Twins" starter. I set it as an optional piece of work for my year 11's over a weekend and one girl came up with 3 independant solutions."
Comment recorded on the 3 October 'Starter of the Day' page by Mrs Johnstone, 7Je:
"I think this is a brilliant website as all the students enjoy doing the puzzles and it is a brilliant way to start a lesson."
Comment recorded on the 14 October 'Starter of the Day' page by Inger Kisby, Herts and Essex High School:
"Just a quick note to say that we use a lot of your starters. It is lovely to have so many different ideas to start a lesson with. Thank you very much and keep up the good work."
Comment recorded on the 11 January 'Starter of the Day' page by S Johnson, The King John School:
"We recently had an afternoon on accelerated learning.This linked really well and prompted a discussion about learning styles and short term memory."
Comment recorded on the 1 February 'Starter of the Day' page by M Chant, Chase Lane School Harwich:
"My year five children look forward to their daily challenge and enjoy the problems as much as I do. A great resource - thanks a million."
Comment recorded on the 2 April 'Starter of the Day' page by Mrs Wilshaw, Dunsten Collage,Essex:
"This website was brilliant. My class and I really enjoy doing the activites."
Comment recorded on the 6 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Natalie, London:
"I am thankful for providing such wonderful starters. They are of immence help and the students enjoy them very much. These starters have saved my time and have made my lessons enjoyable."
Comment recorded on the 23 September 'Starter of the Day' page by Judy, Chatsmore CHS:
"This triangle starter is excellent. I have used it with all of my ks3 and ks4 classes and they are all totally focused when counting the triangles."
Comment recorded on the 12 July 'Starter of the Day' page by Miss J Key, Farlingaye High School, Suffolk:
"Thanks very much for this one. We developed it into a whole lesson and I borrowed some hats from the drama department to add to the fun!"
Comment recorded on the 8 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Mr Smith, West Sussex, UK:
"I am an NQT and have only just discovered this website. I nearly wet my pants with joy.
Comment recorded on the 14 September 'Starter of the Day' page by Trish Bailey, Kingstone School:
"This is a great memory aid which could be used for formulae or key facts etc - in any subject area. The PICTURE is such an aid to remembering where each number or group of numbers is - my pupils love it!
Comment recorded on the 10 September 'Starter of the Day' page by Carol, Sheffield PArk Academy:
"3 NQTs in the department, I'm new subject leader in this new academy - Starters R Great!! Lovely resource for stimulating learning and getting eveyone off to a good start. Thank you!!"
Comment recorded on the 5 April 'Starter of the Day' page by Mr Stoner, St George's College of Technology:
"This resource has made a great deal of difference to the standard of starters for all of our lessons. Thank you for being so creative and imaginative."
Comment recorded on the 17 November 'Starter of the Day' page by Amy Thay, Coventry:
"Thank you so much for your wonderful site. I have so much material to use in class and inspire me to try something a little different more often. I am going to show my maths department your website and encourage them to use it too. How lovely that you have compiled such a great resource to help teachers and pupils.
Comment recorded on the 25 June 'Starter of the Day' page by Inger.kisby@herts and essex.herts.sch.uk, :
"We all love your starters. It is so good to have such a collection. We use them for all age groups and abilities. Have particularly enjoyed KIM's game, as we have not used that for Mathematics before. Keep up the good work and thank you very much
Comment recorded on the 1 February 'Starter of the Day' page by Terry Shaw, Beaulieu Convent School:
"Really good site. Lots of good ideas for starters. Use it most of the time in KS3."
Comment recorded on the 28 September 'Starter of the Day' page by Malcolm P, Dorset:
"A set of real life savers!!
Comment recorded on the 9 April 'Starter of the Day' page by Jan, South Canterbury:
"Thank you for sharing such a great resource. I was about to try and get together a bank of starters but time is always required elsewhere, so thank you."
Comment recorded on the 2 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Angela Lowry, :
"I think these are great! So useful and handy, the children love them.
Comment recorded on the 26 March 'Starter of the Day' page by Julie Reakes, The English College, Dubai:
"It's great to have a starter that's timed and focuses the attention of everyone fully. I told them in advance I would do 10 then record their percentages."
Comment recorded on the 19 November 'Starter of the Day' page by Lesley Sewell, Ysgol Aberconwy, Wales:
"A Maths colleague introduced me to your web site and I love to use it. The questions are so varied I can use them with all of my classes, I even let year 13 have a go at some of them. I like being able to access the whole month so I can use favourites with classes I see at different times of the week. Thanks."
This topic covers line symmetry and rotational symmetry. The innate appeal of symmetry can be found in our reactions to finding symmetry in natural objects, such as precisely formed crystals or seashells. Symmetry in art is another source of delight.
Symmetry Teacher Resources:
Kite Maths: Can you make a kite shape from a single A4 size sheet of paper using only three folds?
Polygons: Name the polygons and show the number of lines and order of rotational symmetry.
Pattern Clues: An interactive activity challenging you to reproduce a pattern of coloured squares according to given clues.
Polygons: Name the polygons and show the number of lines and order of rotational symmetry.
Rotational Symmetry Pairs: The traditional pairs or pelmanism game adapted to test knowledge of rotational symmetry.
Transformations: Draw transformations online and have them instantly checked. Includes reflections, translations, rotations and enlargements.
Symmetry, reality's riddle: Marcus du Sautoy' TED talk illustrating some aspects of symmetry.
The science of symmetry: An illustrated talk about the notion of symmetry and how it applies to nature.
Cat Face Reflections: A worksheet containing pictures and shapes to be reflected in given lines.
Polybragging Cards: Printable cards for the Polybragging game. Use the properties of polygons to win.
Symmetry External Links:
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