Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
Here is a solitaire type environment for you to experiment with. Which targets can you reach?
Advent Calendar 2010 - a mathematical game for every day during the run-up to Christmas.
A game for 2 players. Can be played online. One player has 1 red counter, the other has 4 blue. The red counter needs to reach the other side, and the blue needs to trap the red.
The computer starts with all the lights off, but then clicks 3, 4 or 5 times at random, leaving some lights on. Can you switch them off again?
Slide the pieces to move Khun Phaen past all the guards into the position on the right from which he can escape to freedom.
Can you identify the mathematicians?
A game for 2 people. Take turns joining two dots, until your opponent is unable to move.
A game for 2 people. Take turns to move the counters 1, 2 or 3 spaces. The player to remove the last counter off the board wins.
The aim of the game is to slide the green square from the top right hand corner to the bottom left hand corner in the least number of moves.
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.
A game for 1 or 2 people. Use the interactive version, or play with friends. Try to round up as many counters as possible.
Can you work out how to win this game of Nim? Does it matter if you go first or second?
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.
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 1 person. Can you work out how the dice must be rolled from the start position to the finish? Play on line.
This article for teachers describes several games, found on the site, all of which have a related structure that can be used to develop the skills of strategic planning.
Start with any number of counters in any number of piles. 2 players take it in turns to remove any number of counters from a single pile. The winner is the player to take the last counter.
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.
A Sudoku with a twist.
Basic strategy games are particularly suitable as starting points for investigations. Players instinctively try to discover a winning strategy, and usually the best way to do this is to analyse. . . .
Players take it in turns to choose a dot on the grid. The winner is the first to have four dots that can be joined to form a square.
A simple game of patience which often comes out. Can you explain why?
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.
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. . . .
An article for teachers and pupils that encourages you to look at the mathematical properties of similar games.
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 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.
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.
Practise your diamond mining skills and your x,y coordination in this homage to Pacman.
Here is a version of the game 'Happy Families' for you to make and play.
Can you make the birds from the egg tangram?
Four numbers on an intersection that need to be placed in the surrounding cells. That is all you need to know to solve this sudoku.
Two sudokus in one. Challenge yourself to make the necessary connections.
Use your addition and subtraction skills, combined with some strategic thinking, to beat your partner at this game.
Here are a collection of games from around the world to try during the holidays or the last few weeks of term.
Here is a machine with four coloured lights. Can you develop a strategy to work out the rules controlling each light?
Use the tangram pieces to make our pictures, or to design some of your own!
Collect as many diamonds as you can by drawing three straight lines.
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.
A train building game for 2 players.
This article, the second in the series, looks at some different types of games and the sort of mathematical thinking they can develop.
This pair of linked Sudokus matches letters with numbers and hides a seasonal greeting. Can you find it?
A game to make and play based on the number line.
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 complicated game played on a 9 x 9 checkered grid.
Can you spot the similarities between this game and other games you know? The aim is to choose 3 numbers that total 15.
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...
A shunting puzzle for 1 person. Swop the positions of the counters at the top and bottom of the board.