Transum Maths Software

Factors

There are 366 different Starters of The Day, many to choose from. You will find in the left column below some starters on the topic of Factors. In the right column below are links to related online activities, videos and teacher resources.

A lesson starter does not have to be on the same topic as the main part of the lesson or the topic of the previous lesson. It is often very useful to revise or explore other concepts by using a starter based on a totally different area of Mathematics.

Main Page

Factors Starters:

Abundant Buses: A game based around the concept of factors and abundant numbers.

Dancing: Work out how many people were at the dance from the clues given.

Factuples: Spot the factors and the multiples amongst the numbers in the grid.

Flabbergasted: If each number in a sequence must be a factor or multiple of the previous number what is the longest sequence that can be made from the given numbers?

Four Factors: Find four single digit numbers that multiply together to give 120. How many different ways are there of answering this question?

Hotel Digital: A puzzle about the lifts in a hotel which serve floors based on the day of the week.

Perfect Numbers: Six is a perfect number as it is the sum of its factors. Can you find any other perfect numbers?

Vixen Value: The Vixen Value of a word is the number of vowels multiplied by the number of consonants. How many words can you find with Vixen Value of 24?

 

Small images of these Starters ::  Index of Starters


Factors Advanced Starters:

Back To The Factory: Find all the numbers below 1000 which have exactly 20 factors

Calendar Riddle: Work out the date of my birthday from the clues in rhyme.

Divisible by 11: Can you prove that a three digit number whose first and third digits add up to the value of the second digit must be divisible by eleven?

HCF and LCM given: If given the HCF, LCM can you find the numbers?

Nine Digit Numbers: How many different nine digit numbers are their that contain each of the digits from one to nine?

Reverse Connection: Find a general rule for the difference between a two digit number and that same number with the digits reversed.

Victorian Times Comparison: Is 10! larger or smaller than the number of seconds in six weeks?

Weather Reports: Which five different integers multiply together to give 12?

Zero Even: Prove that zero is an even number.

Index of Advanced Starters


Suggested

Number Grids

Number Grids

Investigate the properties of number with these interactive number grids.

The short web address is:

Transum.org/go/?to=grids

 

Curriculum for Factors:

Year 5

Pupils should be taught to identify multiples and factors, including finding all factor pairs of a number, and common factors of two numbers more...

Pupils should be taught to know and use the vocabulary of prime numbers, prime factors and composite (non-prime) numbers more...

Pupils should be taught to establish whether a number up to 100 is prime and recall prime numbers up to 19 more...

Pupils should be taught to solve problems involving multiplication and division including using their knowledge of factors and multiples, squares and cubes more...

Year 6

Pupils should be taught to use common factors to simplify fractions; use common multiples to express fractions in the same denomination more...

Pupils should be taught to identify common factors, common multiples and prime numbers more...

Years 7 to 9

Pupils should be taught to use the concepts and vocabulary of prime numbers, factors (or divisors), multiples, common factors, common multiples, highest common factor, lowest common multiple, prime factorisation, including using product notation and the unique factorisation property more...

Exam-Style Questions:

There are almost a thousand exam-style questions unique to the Transum website.

Feedback:

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 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 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.
Thanks for such a great resource!"

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
Best wishes from Inger Kisby"

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 s /Coordinate 'Starter of the Day' page by Greg, Wales:

"Excellent resource, I use it all of the time! The only problem is that there is too much good stuff here!!"

Comment recorded on the 1 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Phil Anthony, Head of Maths, Stourport High School:

"What a brilliant website. We have just started to use the 'starter-of-the-day' in our yr9 lessons to try them out before we change from a high school to a secondary school in September. This is one of the best resources on-line we have found. The kids and staff love it. Well done an thank you very much for making my maths lessons more interesting and fun."

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 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 S Mirza, Park High School, Colne:

"Very good starters, help pupils settle very well in maths classroom."

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.
Could we have some on angles too please?"

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.
I rate this site as a 5!"

Comment recorded on the s /Indice 'Starter of the Day' page by Busolla, Australia:

"Thank you very much for providing these resources for free for teachers and students. It has been engaging for the students - all trying to reach their highest level and competing with their peers while also learning. Thank you very much!"

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 Starters for the whole month so I can use favourites with classes I see at different times of the week. Thanks."

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!
Thanks"

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 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 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 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 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.
Thanks again"

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 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.
To the creator of this website and all of those teachers who have contributed to it, I would like to say a big THANK YOU!!! :)."

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 3 October 'Starter of the Day' page by Fiona Bray, Cams Hill School:

"This is an excellent website. We all often use the starters as the pupils come in the door and get settled as we take the register."

Comment recorded on the 19 October 'Starter of the Day' page by E Pollard, Huddersfield:

"I used this with my bottom set in year 9. To engage them I used their name and favorite football team (or pop group) instead of the school name. For homework, I asked each student to find a definition for the key words they had been given (once they had fun trying to guess the answer) and they presented their findings to the rest of the class the following day. They felt really special because the key words came from their own personal information."

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 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 17 June 'Starter of the Day' page by Mr Hall, Light Hall School, Solihull:

"Dear Transum,

I love you website I use it every maths lesson I have with every year group! I don't know were I would turn to with out you!"

Comment recorded on the 21 October 'Starter of the Day' page by Mr Trainor And His P7 Class(All Girls), Mercy Primary School, Belfast:

"My Primary 7 class in Mercy Primary school, Belfast, look forward to your mental maths starters every morning. The variety of material is interesting and exciting and always engages the teacher and pupils. Keep them coming please."

Comment recorded on the 19 June 'Starter of the Day' page by Nikki Jordan, Braunton School, Devon:

"Excellent. Thank you very much for a fabulous set of starters. I use the 'weekenders' if the daily ones are not quite what I want. Brilliant and much appreciated."

Notes:

A factor is a whole number that divides exactly into another whole number. We say the first number is a factor of the second number. Prime numbers only have two factors, one and themselves.

After becoming familiar with times tables pupils then practise using this knowledge by recognising factors of numbers. There are well known and some less well known divisibility tests that are of some use in solving more complex number problems.

Pupils need to know how to find the highest common factor (HCF) of two or more numbers either mentally or using a pen and paper strategy so that they can correctly manipulate fractions and algebraic expressions.

Factors Teacher Resources:

Number Grids: Investigate the properties of number with these interactive number grids.

HCF and LCM Calculator: A demonstration of how to find the highest common factor (HCF or GCD) and the lowest common multiple (LCM) of two numbers.

Divisibility Tests 2-12: A visual aid designed to be projected in the classroom. Here you can find the quick ways of telling whether a number is exactly divisible by the numbers two to twelve.

Prison Cell Problem: A number patterns investigation involving prisoners and prison guards.

Sieve of Eratosthenes: A self checking, interactive version of the Sieve of Eratosthenes method of finding prime numbers.

Factors Activities:

Number Grids: Investigate the properties of number with these interactive number grids.

Prime Numbers Jigsaw: Interactive jigsaw puzzles of different types of grids containing prime numbers.

Factor Trees: Create factor trees to find the prime factors of the given numbers.

Factor Pairs: Find the factor pairs of the given numbers and arrange them in order.

Flabbergasted Game: This game for one or two players is an exciting challenge to demonstrate an understanding of factors and multiples.

How Many Factors?: Work out the number of factors a number has then write them all as a list.

Product of Primes: Match the primes that multiply to give the products. A drag and drop activity.

Prime Labyrinth: Find the path to the centre of the labyrinth by moving along the prime numbers.

Connect 4 Factors: This a game for one or two players. The winner is the first to line up four numbers with a common factor.

Pick The Primes: Pick the prime fruit from the tree as quickly as possible. Practise to improve your personal best time.

HCF and LCM: Practise finding the highest common factor (H.C.F), sometimes called the greatest common divisor, and the lowest common multiple (L.C.M) of two numbers.

Factor Trees Challenge: Can you determine the unique digits that will complete these factor trees?

Times Square: Practise your times tables with this self-checking multiplication grid.

Divisibility Test: Practise using the quick ways to spot whether a number is divisible by the digits two to nine.

Algebraic HCF: Exercises providing practice finding the highest common factor of algebraic expressions.

Algebraic LCM: Exercises providing practice finding the lowest common multiple of algebraic expressions.

Factorising: Practise the skills of algebraic factorisation in this structured online self-marking exercise.

Scallywags and Scoundrels: Arrange the scallywags and scoundrels on the chairs so that the numbers of any two sitting next to each other add up to a prime number.

Prison Cell Problem: A number patterns investigation involving prisoners and prison guards.

Product Square: Arrange the given numbers in a three by three grid to obtain the diagonal, row and column products.

Satisfy: Place the nine numbers in the table so they obey the row and column headings about the properties of the numbers.

Threes and Fives: A game for two players who take turns to add a domino to the line in order to score threes and fives.

Three Ways: Find three different ways of multiplying four different digits together to get the given target number. There are nine levels for this online challenge.

Doughnut Dissection: A puzzle to find four different ways of making 900 by multiplying together three different numbers.

Delightfully Divisible: Arrange the digits one to nine to make a number which is divisible in the way described.

Sieve of Eratosthenes: A self checking, interactive version of the Sieve of Eratosthenes method of finding prime numbers.

Square and Cube Roots: Find square roots and cube roots by first calculating the prime factorisation of a number.

Factors Investigations:

Aunt Sophie's Post Office: Investigate the ways of making up various postage amounts using 3p and 8p stamps. An online stamp calculator is provided for you to check your working.

Factors Videos:

Factors video
Transum's Factors Video


Prime Numbers Video: A reminder of what prime numbers and composite numbers are.

Finding Prime Factors: A straight forward explanation from SLEP

HCF and LCM Video: Learn different methods for finding the highest common factor and lowest common multiple of two or three numbers.

Factorise Any Quadratic: What if you could solve any quadratic function without any guess-and-check or memorization? This video shows you how.

Factors Worksheets/Printables:

Divisibility Tests Worksheet: This worksheet contains a list of the divisibility tests along with a fill-in-the-table exercise.

Factors External Links:

Links to other websites containing resources for Factors are provided for those logged into 'Transum Mathematics'. Subscribing also opens up the opportunity for you to add your own links to this panel. You can sign up using one of the buttons below:

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Suggested

Square and Cube Roots

Square and Cube Roots

Find square roots and cube roots by first calculating the prime factorisation of a number.

The short web address is:

Transum.org/go/?to=scroots

 

Teaching Notes:

Many Transum activities have notes for teachers suggesting teaching methods and highlighting common misconceptions. There are also solutions to puzzles, exercises and activities available on the web pages when you are signed in to your Transum subscription account. If you do not yet have an account and you are a teacher, tutor or parent you can apply for one by completing the form on the Sign Up page.

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