Maths Warm-Up: What's My Sign? ⭐️ The Sydney Teacher

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Maths Warm-Up: What's My Sign?

Start the week with something fun, free, and ready to go from the Monday Morning Maths Club.

Today’s pick is What’s My Sign? It’s a quick warm up that gets the whole class thinking, guessing, and solving right away!

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What's My Sign?

It is a quick, hands-on maths warm up that gets students thinking deeply about operations and equations in a way that actually sticks.

How It Works

Write an equation on the board with the numbers and answer, but leave out the operation signs. Students work out which signs (+, −, ×, ÷) make the equation correct. They share their answers and explain their thinking to the class.

For example:

8 2 4 = 8

Students try different combinations and finally work out:

8 ÷ 2 + 4 = 8

They explain: 8 divided by 2 is 4, then add 4 to get 8. So the signs are ÷ and +.

Why It's So Good

• Quick and zero prep - just write set of numbers on the board

• Gets students thinking, reasoning, and talking maths from the first minute

• Easy to adjust for different year levels or abilities

• Helps you see who’s confident with operations and the order of operations

• Fun and interactive as students stay engaged and focused

It is one of those simple maths activities that often surprises you with how engaged the kids get, especially when they start explaining their thinking and challenging each other’s ideas. I’d love to hear how it goes in your classroom!

Open-Ended Maths Warm Up Slides

$17.00 AUD

Preview PDF Preview PDF

What if instead of groans and grumbles at the start of every maths lesson, you had a way to build genuine excitement and engagement?

Starting with the interactive spinning wheel to select your daily warm up, you'll get instant buy in from students.

Each warm up is then designed to be low floor, high ceiling, meaning they're accessible to all learners (low floor) while offering significant, complex challenges for advanced students (high ceiling). This allows you to engage and challenge ALL the students in your class.

With fully editable slides you can add, delete and change the questions to suit your class and the topics you're focusing on.