Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
An interactive game for 1 person. You are given a rectangle with 50 squares on it. Roll the dice to get a percentage between 2 and 100. How many squares is this? Keep going until you get 100. . . .
A game for 2 people that can be played on line or with pens and paper. Combine your knowledege of coordinates with your skills of strategic thinking.
An interactive activity for one to experiment with a tricky tessellation
A train building game for 2 players.
A game for 2 people that everybody knows. You can play with a friend or online. If you play correctly you never lose!
A card pairing game involving knowledge of simple ratio.
Work out the fractions to match the cards with the same amount of money.
A game for 2 players. Given a board of dots in a grid pattern, players take turns drawing a line by connecting 2 adjacent dots. Your goal is to complete more squares than your opponent.
Choose the size of your pegboard and the shapes you can make. Can you work out the strategies needed to block your opponent?
Here is a version of the game 'Happy Families' for you to make and play.
An interactive game to be played on your own or with friends. Imagine you are having a party. Each person takes it in turns to stand behind the chair where they will get the most chocolate.
A game for 1 or 2 people. Use the interactive version, or play with friends. Try to round up as many counters as possible.
A game for 1 person. Can you work out how the dice must be rolled from the start position to the finish? Play on line.
Try to stop your opponent from being able to split the piles of counters into unequal numbers. Can you find a strategy?
A game to be played against the computer, or in groups. Pick a 7-digit number. A random digit is generated. What must you subract to remove the digit from your number? the first to zero wins.
An extension of noughts and crosses in which the grid is enlarged and the length of the winning line can to altered to 3, 4 or 5.
Try this interactive strategy game for 2
Use the tangram pieces to make our pictures, or to design some of your own!
A shape and space game for 2,3 or 4 players. Be the last person to be able to place a pentomino piece on the playing board. Play with card, or on the computer.
Here is a solitaire type environment for you to experiment with. Which targets can you reach?
Can you make the birds from the egg tangram?
Hover your mouse over the counters to see which ones will be removed. Click to remover them. The winner is the last one to remove a counter. How you can make sure you win?
A shunting puzzle for 1 person. Swop the positions of the counters at the top and bottom of the board.
A complicated game played on a 9 x 9 checkered grid.
An ordinary set of dominoes can be laid out as a 7 by 4 magic rectangle in which all the spots in all the columns add to 24, while those in the rows add to 42. Try it! Now try the magic square...
Here are a collection of games from around the world to try during the holidays or the last few weeks of term.
The idea of this game is to add or subtract the two numbers on the dice and cover the result on the grid, trying to get a line of three. Are there some numbers that are good to aim for?
A game for 2 players. Take turns to place a counter so that it occupies one of the lowest possible positions in the grid. The first player to complete a line of 4 wins.
The game uses a 3x3 square board. 2 players take turns to play, either placing a red on an empty square, or changing a red to orange, or orange to green. The player who forms 3 of 1 colour in a line. . . .
This is a game for 2 players. Each player has 4 counters each, and wins by blocking their opponent's counters. A good follow-on from two stones.
A game for 2 players. This could be played outside with people instead of counters. Try to trap or escape from your opponent.
Can you work out how to win this game of Nim? Does it matter if you go first or second?
A game for 1 person to develop stategy and shape and space awareness. 12 counters are placed on a board. Counters are removed one at a time. The aim is to be left with only 1 counter.
A game to make and play based on the number line.
A game for 2 people. Take turns placing a counter on the star. You win when you have completed a line of 3 in your colour.
Everthing you have always wanted to do with dominoes! Some of these games are good for practising your mental calculation skills, and some are good for your reasoning skills.
In this game you throw two dice and find their total, then move the appropriate counter to the right. Which counter reaches the purple box first? Is this what you would expect?
Collect as many diamonds as you can by drawing three straight lines.
This article, the second in the series, looks at some different types of games and the sort of mathematical thinking they can develop.
Can you spot the similarities between this game and other games you know? The aim is to choose 3 numbers that total 15.
Slide the pieces to move Khun Phaen past all the guards into the position on the right from which he can escape to freedom.
This is a game for two players. You will need some small-square grid paper, a die and two felt-tip pens or highlighters. Players take turns to roll the die, then move that number of squares in. . . .
A game for 2 players. Given an arrangement of matchsticks, players take it is turns to remove a matchstick, along with all of the matchsticks that touch it.
A game for 2 players that can be played online. Players take it in turns to select a word from the 9 words given. The aim is to select all the occurrences of the same letter.
A game for 2 or more people, based on the traditional card game Rummy. Players aim to make two `tricks', where each trick has to consist of a picture of a shape, a name that describes that shape, and. . . .
A game in which players take it in turns to try to draw quadrilaterals (or triangles) with particular properties. Is it possible to fill the game grid?
A game in which players take it in turns to choose a number. Can you block your opponent?
A game in which players take it in turns to turn up two cards. If they can draw a triangle which satisfies both properties they win the pair of cards. And a few challenging questions to follow...
This article supplies teachers with information that may be useful in better understanding the nature of games and their role in teaching and learning mathematics.