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On this page, you will find four groups of resources which will help you embed problem solving into your curriculum:
If you are an Early Years practitioner, you may well find our Early Years homepage more appropriate than this one.
To find out about the thinking that informs the development of these tasks, read What We Think and Why We Think it.
The documents on this page contain everything you need to include problem-solving activities in your planning, as they link up the National Curriculum statements with some of our favourite activities.
The features on this page are linked to the three aims of the National Curriculum - number fluency, reasoning and problem solving.
On this page, you will find features linked to different aspects of the 2014 National Curriculum, including new curriculum content.
These features focus on how concrete objects can be used as manipulatives in the classroom, and how this can form the basis for problem-solving activities.
The features listed here come with ideas for embedding the activities into your classroom practice.
Successful mathematicians understand curriculum concepts, are fluent in mathematical procedures, can solve problems, explain and justify their thinking, and have a positive attitude towards learning mathematics.
For problems arranged by curriculum topic and age group, see our Primary Curriculum Mapping Document.
The tasks, with short descriptions, also appear in the collections below, organised using the same curriculum headings.
For problems arranged by mathematical thinking skills, see our Mathematical Thinking page
For problems arranged by mathematical mindsets, see our Mathematical Mindsets page
This collection of activities covers the areas of probability and collecting and analysing data.
Successful mathematicians understand curriculum concepts, are fluent in mathematical procedures, can solve problems, explain and justify their thinking, and have a positive attitude towards learning mathematics.
Being curious, resourceful, resilient and collaborative are all valuable mathematical mindsets. We hope the activities below will give learners opportunities to develop these desirable characteristics.
For problems arranged by curriculum topic, see our Primary Curriculum page
For problems arranged by mathematical thinking skills, see our Mathematical Thinking page
These problems will exploit primary learners' natural curiosity and provoke them to ask good mathematical questions.
These problems require careful consideration. Allow your learners time to become absorbed in them.
These problems are ideal for children to work on with others. Encourage your learners to share ideas, and recognise that two heads can be better than one.
These problems require resilience for primary school children. Encourage your learners to persevere - there's often a great sense of achievement when we've had to struggle.