In this blog guest writer Henry breaks down the thought process behind our Colour by Numbers worksheets and how to get the best out of them in the classroom.
I’m Henry and I’ve been working with Twinkl Secondary for two years. I taught maths in secondary schools for 4 years, where the greatest compliment I ever received was that my suit made me look like Agent 47 from the ‘Hitman’ games. Today, I want to give you the scoop on our most diverse and popular resources – Colour by Numbers.
We made our first Colour by Numbers resources for Christmas a year ago (check out the pack here) and they were so popular that we’ve been making them at the rate of about one a week since then. We now have around 70 Colour by Numbers Activity Sheets on the website – many of them differentiated at three or four levels.
How Do Teachers Use Our Colour by Numbers Resources?
Colour by Numbers are a great way to engage your class while giving them reinforcement of key topics. We offer a very wide range of different topics so that, hopefully, whatever you’re teaching, you can find a resource to suit your class (if we’ve missed anything, we’d love to hear your ideas and can usually have a requested resource on the website within two weeks). We’ve started with really basic things like the four operations and we’ve gone all the way up to the highest of the Higher GCSE topics like inverse functions and algebraic fractions.
Some teachers like to save them for the end of term and other special events, while others will use them as a main part of the lesson, a homework, starter or plenary. Students enjoy doing them and the final reveal of the image is always satisfying – for the students and for that untended display board that has been gathering dust since September.
How Do Colour by Numbers Work?
Most of our Colour by Numbers have each task set written in the sections to be shaded but, in order to ensure that we could include as many topics as possible, some tasks require more space. There are a few which come with a separate sheet of questions that link back to sections on the picture. When we’re creating them, we’re always mindful of making sure that the questions are meaningful and make students think, as well as being suitable for as wide a range of abilities as possible.
What about the Illustrations?
We’re very lucky to have our talented in-house illustrator, Callie, on the Secondary Maths team. She pours detail and character into every last picture, making every new Colour by Numbers unique and challenging.
Many of our Colour by Numbers Activity Sheets don’t have a specific theme but we do have some that are particularly suited to events. Check out some of our Christmas offerings here:
These are also some that are suitable for Halloween:
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t3-m-4611-percentage-multipliers-colour-by-number
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t3-e-1073-vectors-colour-by-number
We have a free Colour by Number that you could try for yourself today.
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t3-m-4370-simplifying-ratios-colour-by-number
In Twinkl Secondary, we’re committed to making the most comprehensive and highest quality resources for you. We’d really love for you to leave us a review to let us know what you think.