23 Maths Warm-Up Ideas for Your Classroom

Written by Holly (Teach Starter)

Updated 5 years ago | 4 min read

Daily maths warm-ups are intended to be a quick warm-up of the brain.They are not meant to be something that is going to take a long time to organise or plan. But, something that can be used quickly for the whole class! Maths warm-ups are for students to practise concepts they’ve learned in pervious classes, but still need continued practise such as counting, addition, subtraction, place value etc.

Here is a list of 23 quick and easy ideas to create valuable maths warm-ups in your class.

Maths Warm-Ups on the Whiteboard

It’s as simple as using your current classroom whiteboard and writing quick maths word problems on the board.

Whiteboard Maths Warm-Up Ideas

Whiteboard Maths Warm Up Ideas

Who Am I using numbers
- I am a number. I am 4 digits long. 3 & 5 are 2 of my many factors. What number could I be?
Work it out – the answer is… what is the question?
- The answer is 3/4. What is the question?
Use numbers to get an answer.
- The answer is 345. Use these numbers to work out a number of questions – 10, 3, 4, 5, 2, 1, 100.
Balance an even group of numbers using addition.
- Use addition to balance these numbers so both sides are equal – 56, 38, 24, 32, 18, 19, 40, 6, 16, 22.
Make a number using different methods and provided numbers.
- Make 126. Use all of the numbers (200, 5, 4, 2, 6) to arrive at an answer of 126. You can use addition, subtraction, multiplication or division, but each number may only be used once.
Play Games
- A fun maths warm-up that can be played as a whole class or in groups of 3. Students stand up and without looking at the other player’s numbers, writes a number between 2 and 9. The third player calls out the sum of the numbers and the winner is the person who can figure out what number the other player has first. This can be differentiated by increasing or decreasing numbers, or by having the third player find the product instead of the sum.

Today's maths warm up… Back to Back ☺️ can be played as a whole class or in groups of 3. Students stand up, and without looking at the other player's number, writes a number between 2 and 9. The third player calls out the sum of the numbers and the winner is the person who can figure out what number the other player has first. Can be differentiated by increasing or decreasing numbers, or by having the third player find the product instead of the sum ?? #iteachsecond #teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram #aussieteachertribe #downunderteachers #iheartmath #iteachmath #iteachgrade2 #mathswarmups

A post shared by ? Lauren ? (@a_gem_of_a_grade) on Feb 18, 2016 at 10:19pm PST

Maths Warm-Up PowerPoints

Using a variety of different methods for each day’s maths warm up keeps it interesting for your students. Having a bank of different interactive PowerPoints are another fantastic way to get those little minds thinking mathematically!

We have a variety of maths interactive powerpoints, covering a range of topics including; place value, money and multiplication and division.

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Our Number of the Day Warm-Up PowerPoint, is the perfect addition to your maths warm up collection. All you need is a chosen number and there are more than 20 different activities included in the PowerPoint. Easily change the level of this maths warm-up by changing the number used.

Check out our newly created collection of Multiplication PowerPoints as well!

Matching Activities

Having a collection of match-up activity cards laminated and ready to go is also another quick and easy maths warm-up idea.

I liked using the whiteboard for these activities. As the students entered the classroom they would match one set of cards.

Here are some great maths matching activities you can use:

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‘I Have, Who Has’ Maths Warm-Up Game

This game was one of my favourite maths warm-ups to do with my class.

A quick, yet fun game that students loved playing! So many different variations of it and we would keep track of how quickly the class got through the cards. They kept wanting to beat their record time!

The student that has the sentence I am the starterbegins the game by standing up and reading their card.Once they have read their clue, the student that hasthe matching number on their card stands up andreads what is on their card.The game continues until the last person reads out Iam the last number!.

The best part about this is that once you have printed and laminated these game cards, you can use them again and again! Perfect!

We have a huge collection of I Have, Who Has game cards. Plus, an editable word version of ‘I Have, Who Has’ game cards that you can use to create your very own, depending on the topic you want to cover.

Here is our collection of I Have, Who Has cards:

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